cleaning grease traps

This article will cover grease trap cleaner and cleaners as well as their uses. Modern times have brought forth so many conveniences to mankind. Medicines, machines, clothes, houses, and food are instantly produced according to the preference of the target market. Among these major industries, machine and food businesses are the biggest contributors to the FOG (fats, oils, grease) crisis. This is because of the by-products that they produce—FOG.

It’s really quite saddening to realize that the price of convenience is the harm that it gives to the environment and to man himself. FOG continues to overwhelm highly industrialized countries especially the United States. The US is a country known to be run by entrepreneurs and businesses that pop are machine and food production. More and more businesses like these pop up every day and as a result, more FOG is produced. This is the reason why there is a call for a good commercial grease trap cleaner.

But before the commercial grease trap cleaner is given focus, the government created a grease ordinance or a pretreatment ordinance for every food and machine establishment to follow. The ordinance mandates the business owners to have grease traps installed and maintained in their premises. The traps should have permits from the Department of City Government so that they could be inspected at any given time. Maintenance of the grease traps needs to be performed on a regular basis. This includes a thorough inspection every week. Pumping out the grease traps depends on the size, location, and accessibility. The large outdoor grease traps need to be pumped out every quarter. The smaller, indoor grease traps should be pumped out every month. But even with these basic schedules, most companies prefer having their grease traps pumped out every week. They would rather pay for weekly pump outs than face environmental lawsuits and pay large fines for FOG overflow.

The process of pumping out the grease trap is already established. All that’s needed is a stable schedule and a certified hauler for the waste. The critical aspect here is the commercial grease trap cleaner that should be purchased and used on a regular basis. There are so many products out there that promise to eliminate grease permanently once you use them. The most common of them are the enzymes and chemicals.  The manufacturers of these grease trap cleaners tell their customers that the FOG problem is considered solved once they use the products. When the customers apply these cleaners into their traps, the FOG seems to disappear or melt away. What really happens is that the FOG just gets emulsified and mixed up with the untreated effluent. The FOG cools down within the pipes, solidifies, and sticks to the walls of the pipelines, blocking the normal flow of the wastewater that’s supposed to reach the wastewater treatment facility, already pre-treated or FOG-free. Everything just gets far worse because the wastewater backs up into the business establishment and contaminates everything.

The most efficient commercial grease trap cleaner is the additive that’s composed of bacteria. Bacteria are primitive microorganisms that have survived even nuclear fallouts. They have continued to exist even in the harshest of environments. Realizing their potency to consume and to survive, they are now utilized as a type of commercial grease trap cleaner. Bacteria can digest or consume the FOG and the solid waste materials in the grease trap. They also get rid of the awful, offensive smells and keep the surrounding environment free from pollution. There are several forms of bacteria that are available in the market today—powdered bacteria, liquid bacteria, bacteria pumps, bacteria blocks, and grease trap tablets. Among these forms, the grease tablet is the latest modification. It contains buffers, aerobic bacteria, nutrients, and active oxygen to facilitate the faster breakdown of FOG and solid wastes.

The use of bacteria as a commercial grease trap cleaner should be encouraged. With bacteria, companies could save on pumping out bills every week. They also help in preventing environmental lawsuits and large fines.

This article will cover municipal grease trap cleaning and the benefits. Progress is natural but it can also be synthesized according to how you would want it. In this day and age, people just couldn’t help but witness all types of progress unfold right before their very eyes. It’s everywhere and it’s continually pushing everything forward. But when there is progress, it’s already a given that there just might be some things that could be to everyone’s disadvantage. FOG (fats, oils, grease) is one of the prices that the Earth has to pay for having such enormous yet uncontrolled progress. It is growing to be one of the biggest environmental problems that have ever affected the United States and every municipality is dealing with it the best way they could.

The food industry is the main causative agent of the FOG problem in the US. Any institution or establishment that’s related to food contributes a great deal to the worsening effects of FOG overflow. This is the main reason why a pretreatment or a grease trap ordinance is strictly implemented and observed so that the grease materials may be prevented from spilling into the wastewater. The ordinance aims to protect the sewer lines and the wastewater treatment facility as well. If the FOG doesn’t stop clogging the pipes, backing up of untreated effluent will continue to occur; the holding capacity of the pipes will decrease dramatically, the pipes will be frequently replaced, and the damages to health, property, and environment will continue to affect everyone.

According to the grease ordinance, the food establishment owner or administrator should have a permit for the installed grease trap or grease interceptor. This valuable component needs to be regularly inspected by the municipal representative that handles matters that concern the sewers. It is also mandated that the grease traps should always be cleaned up or pumped out at least four times annually or more frequent than that, depending of its actual use.

The much required grease interceptor is a vessel or receptacle that collects the FOG and solid waste materials that come mainly from the kitchens or areas of food preparation/production. Food is made up of vegetable and animal fats and these are the by-products that go straight into the drains and into the grease traps. There is a set maximum level of FOG that’s allowed to spill into the wastewater but as much as possible, this should be kept as a low minimum. Municipal grease trap cleaning really has to be done more effectively to make sure that contamination in all levels does not happen at all.

Annually, food industries face environmental lawsuits and pay up very hefty fines because of the FOG overflow from their grease traps. This happens because of their lack of maintenance and care for the grease trap. Since food manufacturers produce FOG more than any other industry in any municipality, a weekly maintenance practice should be initiated. An employee should be assigned to monitor the FOG level in the grease trap to make sure how frequent the cleaning up should be. Those who are working in wash stations should remember that how water used should only be up to 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Melted grease in hot or warm water can appear harmless but this will eventually solidify in the pipes and blockage will occur.

If the food establishment owners see it impractical and expensive to very frequently pump out and clean their grease traps, it would be better to install a much larger grease trap instead.  This will lengthen the time interval of cleaning sessions and would save the company more money.

Municipal grease trap cleaning can be much more accelerated with the use of bacteria. With these friendly microorganisms, the grease trap is cleaned up more thoroughly. The bad odors are also eliminated when they work on the grease trap. Bacteria-based processes such as bioaugmentation and bioremediation can really bring progress to a brand new level. Progress CAN exist while caring for health, property, and environment.