Monthly Archives: December 2019

So, you’ve decided to join a community of thousands of food business owners and take on the fatberg problem. You’ve invested in a quality grease trap, weighed up the benefits of buying automatic grease traps versus manual, and had your grease management solution installed. After taking some time to congratulate yourself, you’ve let your GRU do what it does best. Now, as the day you scheduled for your first grease trap clear-out looms, you’re wondering: What next? What do I do after I’ve cracked open the lid, and scooped out the FOGs? Where does it all go then?

Don’t fret: here’s a guide to getting rid of the grease your trusty grease trap collects.

The FOG problem still looms large. Fats, oils and grease (FOGs) are still making their way down our drains and into our sewers where they clump together and form fatbergs over time.

Water companies are still footing the bill for removing most of those bergs, as they focus on spreading awareness about the FOG problem – giving food businesses the benefit of the doubt while gently encouraging better practice.

But it won’t be long before their focus shifts. We’ve seen food businesses fined thousands of pounds for poor grease management practices, and we could see many more financial penalties handed out to unwary businesses in the coming years.

Ignoring the fatberg problem is bad for business – and getting a good quality grease trap installed is an investment worth making.

Fatbergs keep making headlines in the UK for all the wrong reasons. For example, reports of a fatberg larger than a Jumbo jet circulated when a 209 foot-long fatberg was discovered in Sidmouth, England. It was a combination of fat, oil and wet wipes which took a lot of manpower and resources to take apart and ensure that the obstruction it was causing was cleared.

Despite such harrowing stories of fatbergs in the UK, it is not just our little isle that seems able to produce fatbergs on every scale – from small inconveniences to gigantic sewer stopping monsters, Fatbergs are happening on a global scale and, just as in the UK, typically in built-up, densely populated areas that harbour the perfect quantity of ingredients to create fatbergs.

Given the menace they pose on drainage systems around the world, it is important to look at other areas where fatbergs have been observed and their contents.