Author: Guest Contributor

Some post-holiday reflections from the Reed Family:

Well, the holidays are long gone and it is time to reflect. We cooked, we ate, we sang, we ate, we celebrated and then… We ate. Where did it all go? Not the holidays, but the excess grease and food waste that we create for this special time of year? There are literally tons of food scraps, peelings, shells, etc. thrown down the sink every day into a system designed for our wastewater. This system was not designed to be a trash disposal system. When we use our kitchen drain for a trash can, bits and pieces of food and garbage mix with the many items we throw down the sink and toilet, add a little FOG (fats,oils, and grease) and you have one greasy blob. This blob travels down your sewer lines and, like a snowball, attracts other garbage and FOG until the mass is too great and everything just stops. This happens every day! We need to CAN THE GREASE and STOP using the kitchen sink as a trash can. This can go a long way toward keeping costs lower. Now here are a few tips from the Reed gang :

From Andy Reed – Isle of Wight FOG Inspector:

1. Remove your garbage disposal. I did this rather than replace an aging disposal and have never missed it. Trash goes into the trash can!
2. Get a strainer for the kitchen sink. They are easy to empty and clean with no more food down the drain.
3. Start a grease can – they’re great for cooling and storing grease for disposal.

From Madison – 9th grader at Woodside High School and Austin – 8th grader at Hines Middle School:

Hi, I’m Madi and I’m Austin and we are haters, grease haters, that is. Now that we are teenagers, we cook and prepare food more often. We try to be environmentally smart in the kitchen. Our kitchen sink is a NO GREASE ZONE – No Fats, No Oils, No solids! Here are our tips:

1. Remember: Only liquids down the sink. No grease and no leftovers!
2. When cleaning greasy pots and pans, scrape them into the trash first with a spatula and then remove the remainder with a napkin to reduce grease.
3. Try to educate your parents and friends because we’ll inherit this system one day.

 GREASE IS NOT COOL!