Grease is the word of a new industry
Rick Montgomery | KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Issue date: 3/31/04 Section: News
He will carry the chunk to a research lab at North Carolina State University, where scientists will core it, cross-section it and slide pieces under a microscope.
They seek to answer the basic question, "How strong is this stuff?" as Holt put it. Does discarded grease congeal and harden from the inside out or from the outside in? Does it form faster in clay pipes or cast iron or plastic? Science has just begun to poke the surface, he said: "We could talk about this for hours."
In the larger world of rendering and recycling, "there's a lot of money in grease," said Steven Grover, vice president at National Restaurant Association. "And there's a pretty big cost for restaurants to dispose of it."
Most communities require restaurants to install grease traps that catch griddle gunk, dishwater ooze and slime mopped off the floors before they reach the sewer lines. But if the grease traps are not regularly scooped out, they fail.
Past the drain, kitchen grease picks up hitchhikers - gum wrappers, onion peels, hairballs, hygiene waste - and "holds it all together, building up into a mass," said Bob Williamson, a Kansas City wastewater treatment supervisor.
"Quite often, it doesn't get more than 100 yards before it clogs everything," Williamson said. "The sewer crew will just look up the street and, lo and behold, a restaurant! Walk up. Knock, knock. 'Oh no, it couldn't be us.'
"We've never had a problem with McDonald's. Their managers know what they're doing," Williamson said. Chinese restaurants present such a sewer risk that the city recently printed up "Grease Goblin" adviseries in Chinese.
"How do you know if a particular restaurant is responsible? You don't," said Grover of the restaurant association. "When sewer authorities can't figure out the source of a grease clog, they blame the restaurant. I have a problem with that. They'll never blame all the homeowners who contribute.
"Not long ago, my wife was carrying a big ol' thing of grease," Grover recalled. "And I asked what she was doing with it. She said, 'I'm going to flush it down the toilet.' And I said, 'hold on there!' ... I don't think households have a clue."
They seek to answer the basic question, "How strong is this stuff?" as Holt put it. Does discarded grease congeal and harden from the inside out or from the outside in? Does it form faster in clay pipes or cast iron or plastic? Science has just begun to poke the surface, he said: "We could talk about this for hours."
In the larger world of rendering and recycling, "there's a lot of money in grease," said Steven Grover, vice president at National Restaurant Association. "And there's a pretty big cost for restaurants to dispose of it."
Most communities require restaurants to install grease traps that catch griddle gunk, dishwater ooze and slime mopped off the floors before they reach the sewer lines. But if the grease traps are not regularly scooped out, they fail.
Past the drain, kitchen grease picks up hitchhikers - gum wrappers, onion peels, hairballs, hygiene waste - and "holds it all together, building up into a mass," said Bob Williamson, a Kansas City wastewater treatment supervisor.
"Quite often, it doesn't get more than 100 yards before it clogs everything," Williamson said. "The sewer crew will just look up the street and, lo and behold, a restaurant! Walk up. Knock, knock. 'Oh no, it couldn't be us.'
"We've never had a problem with McDonald's. Their managers know what they're doing," Williamson said. Chinese restaurants present such a sewer risk that the city recently printed up "Grease Goblin" adviseries in Chinese.
"How do you know if a particular restaurant is responsible? You don't," said Grover of the restaurant association. "When sewer authorities can't figure out the source of a grease clog, they blame the restaurant. I have a problem with that. They'll never blame all the homeowners who contribute.
"Not long ago, my wife was carrying a big ol' thing of grease," Grover recalled. "And I asked what she was doing with it. She said, 'I'm going to flush it down the toilet.' And I said, 'hold on there!' ... I don't think households have a clue."