Don’t Dump Your FOG Down the Sink!

With the holiday season approaching, many people will be cooking up delicious meals to feed their family and friends. What does yummy food have to do with FOG?  FOG stands for  fats, oils, and grease. Just like grease clogs your arteries, when you dump it down the sink it clogs the County’s arteries–the sewer system. 

This doesn’t just apply to large amounts of FOG, like the leftover oil from your deep fried turkey.

When any amount of cooking oil, butter, shortening or even heavy sauces  are dumped into your kitchen sink, it accumulates inside the sewer pipes making it difficult for wastewater to flow to the wastewater treatment plant. This includes wastewater draining from toilets and showers. When wastewater can’t make its way through the sewer pipes, it can overflow into your home, streets, lawns, and stormdrains, eventually making its way to the ocean. Not how you want your holidays to end!

Instead of dumping FOG down the sink, collect your used cooking oil for proper disposal at a local collection facility. To find the closest drop off location, check out our One-Stop Recycling Resource, www.wastefreesd.org.

A few common myths about FOG:

Myth: Wash grease with dish soap.
Fact: Even though soap breaks up grease, it loses its effectiveness downstream, allowing grease to solidify on the pipe walls.

Myth: Running hot tap water will help grease float in the sewer pipe.
Fact: Running hot tap water will NOT help grease float through the sewer pipe because the water will eventually cool as it flows through the pipe and the grease will become solid again.

Myth: Pour cooking oil at room temperature.
Fact: Cooking oil such as canola and olive float on water and adhere to the sewer pipes. It is best to  avoid pouring oil down the drain altogether to avoid sewage problems.

America Recycles Day 2011!

Every year on November 15^th communities across the country come together to celebrate America Recycles Day, a day dedicated to educating and motivating our neighbors, friends and community leaders to recycle!  

This year, over 800 students at Los Coches Creek Middle School participated in an EnviroFair in celebration of America Recycles Day her in San Diego. I Love A Clean San Diego and The County of San Diego worked together to educate 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students about recycling and the importance of conserving the environment.

Activities included a lesson on recycling rules  and a fast and furious Recycle Relay by I Love A Clean San Diego educators, a composting discussion and demonstration by the Solana Center, watershed model presentations and water quality testing from the Splash Science Mobile Lab, and informational booths and recycled giveaways from Allied Waste, the County of San Diego, and I Love A Clean San Diego.

Greg Bledsoe of NBC San Diego caught some great action shots during the day, click here to view the video!

Los Coches Creek Middle School already has their own recycling program in place, with bins in classrooms and around campus. Shauna Stueve, a teacher at the school, gets help from students to ensure that the program runs effectively and that all recyclable items are placed in the correct bins. The EnviroFair showed students why their recycling efforts are so important. According to Robert Wade, a science teacher at Los Coches Creek Middle School, “Students were engaged and challenged by your staff and they all came away with global ideas they could implement in their daily lives.”

Immediately after school, many of the students and teachers joined I Love A Clean San Diego in a community cleanup in the area surrounding the school. Trash and recyclable materials were collected separately, and many students were surprised at how much litter they found in their community. Sonja Washer, a math and science teacher at Los Coches Creek middle school thanked I Love A Clean San Diego after the event, saying, “Thank you again for your concern for our environment and for educating our students so our futures are cleaner.”

One-Stop Recycling Resource

Have old paint cans, batteries, or electronics lying around the house? I Love A Clean San Diego provides San Diegans with an online recycling database, www.wastefreesd.org, plus a bilingual hotline (1-877-R-1-EARTH) that offer useful tips for safe disposal of paints and other household waste. This information about waste disposal and recycling helps to prevent illegal dumping, and prevents hazardous materials from entering our landfills, stopping serious environmental problems before they happen. In 2011, we provided referrals to keep 19,000 items out of local landfills!