London program removes thousands of sewer 'grease balls'

A London program that encourages people not to dump grease down the drain has eliminated blocked city pipes, while saving the city about $100,000 a year.

The project, called Your Turn, provides homeowners with degradable containers for storing oils and grease, which are later recycled and transformed into electricity.

Barry Orr, sewer outreach and control inspector for the City of London, said the city is budgeting $500,000 a year to flush its sewers, compared to the$600,000 spent in previous years.

The issue of blocked pipes leading to overflows has also been eliminated.

"We are seeing improvements in the sewer system that is saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars," Orr said. "Now we're seeing municipalities all across Canada engage in similar programs."

Homeowners in Windsor warned not to flush cooking waste

The City of Windsor also provides homeowners with freecontainers for cooking waste at the Household Chemical Waste Depot and at community centres.

The city's website also provides information on how improperly cleaning up after cooking can cause problems.

"Back-ups of sewage can occur when the sewer lines are clogged with a build up of fats, oil and greases," an online article reads. The "waste builds up on sewer walls, causing blockages in the sewer system."

Holidays area high point for fat

The holiday season is a particularly important time of year for the program, considering so many hams, turkeys and other fatty dishes are filling people's ovens.

Having residents participate in the program helps eliminate plenty of greasy material from city pipes.

"All you have to do is let that grease cool a little bit, dump it in the container and put it in your fridge or your freezer to harden up and then continually use it until it's full," Orr said. "It's a really awesome opportunity to protect our sewers with community awareness."

Orr said the program began as a form of community outreach in 2013 after knocking on doors in neighbourhoods where people were "treating the toilet like a garbage can." That survey revealed many residents simply didn't know the harm of flushing fat.

When that grease gets into the pipes, it can be difficult and expensive to eliminate, Orr said. In many cases, the built up grease and fat will cool and congeal, forming "thousands upon thousands of grease balls" that clog pipes.

Programsaves money and creates energy

Once the Your Turn containers are filled, people in London can bring them to the city's EnviroDepots where it's used to create methane gas that's burned to power a generator that feeds into London's electricity supply.

In 2016, more than 2,000 litres of fats, oils and grease was collected in one deposit location.

"It's amazing what kind of power we can get from your bacon fat," Orr said. "Ten cups would power a refrigerator for 10 days or power a laptop for an entire month."