The Star Advertiser had an article recently about a fat absorbing box called Whoa! Fat! It holds up to a quart of your grease/fat from frying. It's a leak-proof Chinese take-out type box with cellulose material in it to absorb the fat so you can then dispose it in your weekly rubbish collection. The fat is then taken to the HPower plant at Campbell Industrial plant to be burned into energy.
The article by Nina Wu explained that the public should know about how oils going into the sewer system causes problems for the sewer lines. The fat solidifies in the sewer pipes and clog it. Apparently fats, oils, grease, collectively known as FOG is the city system's #1 enemy. It can also clog your home plumbing.
Therefore those Whoa! Fat! boxes sound good, but they're not cheap. They're $3.00 a box. What we've been doing is keeping the empty leak-proof Kim Chee, Takuan, etc. plastic bottles to be used to store the oil my mother uses occasionally to fry her lemon chicken and tossing them in the garbage in used plastic bags (just in case). We also clean up the frying pan with a couple of paper towels and throw them in a plastic bag and then in the garbage too.
What do you do?
The article by Nina Wu explained that the public should know about how oils going into the sewer system causes problems for the sewer lines. The fat solidifies in the sewer pipes and clog it. Apparently fats, oils, grease, collectively known as FOG is the city system's #1 enemy. It can also clog your home plumbing.
Therefore those Whoa! Fat! boxes sound good, but they're not cheap. They're $3.00 a box. What we've been doing is keeping the empty leak-proof Kim Chee, Takuan, etc. plastic bottles to be used to store the oil my mother uses occasionally to fry her lemon chicken and tossing them in the garbage in used plastic bags (just in case). We also clean up the frying pan with a couple of paper towels and throw them in a plastic bag and then in the garbage too.
What do you do?
I just wait for the fat to solidify and then I wipe it with a paper towel and throw it into the trash bag.
ReplyDeletewhen I dump it into the disposal/drain I emulsify or thin it with detergent. Large amounts end up in the wastebasket for H-Power at the public incinerator.
ReplyDeleteWe don't fry things, so we don't have any fat to get rid of, other than what we wear. :-)
ReplyDeleteI do just what you do. I would definitely use a Whoa Fat box but there is no place to take them for recycle. Drat.
ReplyDeleteI had to think about this one, then I realized we rarely have any fat to get rid of. When I do, it's usually from baking meat or poaching chicken; after the broth chills and the fat congeals I skim it off, throw it in a plastic bag and put it in the trash.
ReplyDeleteOne of those boxes would last me a long time.
we rarely fry anything. I use spray spam on my pan unless it's veggies then sometimes butter. Boxing it sounds like a solution. Ah the problems of modern life...lol!
ReplyDeleteI was so hopeful when I read your title and eagerly read on in the hopes of finding out how to rapidly shed those extra pounds! This sounds like a good idea, I don't think I've seen anything like it in the UK. We don't really have much fat to get rid of as we only use the minutest amount in our cooking. When we roast a chicken there is a little extra, but that gets used up in other cooking or gets scraped into the food compost bin.
ReplyDeleteI thought this post was going to be about the fat people carry around with them. The only grease we have these days is the paper towels Bob uses when he cooks bacon. When I was a child my mother had a container on the stove where she poured grease when she was through cooking. When she had collected enough she'd make a batch of lye soap with it.
ReplyDeleteI should have known about these years ago. Goodness knows how many sewer systems I ruined in the old days. I don't cook often now, but if I generate any fat it burns away on our outdoor grill. Or, else it goes in the waste basket along with the pee papers which absorb it nicely. Dianne
ReplyDeleteI wish we still had coffee cans into which we could pour our used oils, but alas, our coffee now comes in the form of beans in a bag. I keep bacon fat in a jar in the fridge. Got that idea from a blogging friend in SF. He uses it to fry green tomatoes and it really works well. As for frying, I use vegetable oil and just pour it down the drain, using lots of Dawn detergent to break it up as it travels through the pipes. I think potato peels cause more of a problem in the pipes than oil does.
ReplyDeleteinteresting info..
ReplyDeleteI don't fry foods, but I do drain fat from some meats. I dispose of it in the garbage bin. I'd never in a million years pour it into the sink!
ReplyDeletehere we sort our garbage into compostables, recyclables and garbage so it works well!
ReplyDeleteOh, that's easy...I just make sure that whatever I fry soaks up all the fat so all that lovely fat is clogging up my arteries and not my clean drainpipes! HA! Just Kidding!
ReplyDeleteIF we ever fry, we pour it into a cup and put it in the fridge and then scrape that into the trash once it is solid. NEVER DOWN THE SINK!
I let it get solid and throw it out
ReplyDeleteWe do fry fish quite often and use refined/mustard oil .For this kind of cleaning we have a special corner right outside our kitchen ,so that takes care of it.
ReplyDeleteI haven't done much frying lately, but I have a lidded container under the sink that stores fat, and we usually just wipe the pan out with paper towels and toss them. It doesn't go down the drain.
ReplyDeleteI don't do much frying either but even if grilling meat I use paper towels too. It can be messy though so the boxes sound like a good idea.
ReplyDeletethe boxes sound like a great idea, we do pretty much the same as anyone else, save it and put it in a sealed container, we recycle here so the fat would go into waste bin.Its not used anywhere here yet for naything.But I know some cities do have a depot where one can bring used cooking fat.I don't fry with oil, but any fat that accumulates i drain off and seal in a container, .
ReplyDeleteWe don't have much fat or grease. I dod the paper towel thing.
ReplyDeleteMy son runs his car on cooking oil. I'm so proud of him!
Greetings from Cottage Country!