How to dispose off used cooking oil properly instead of pouring it into the drain? What happens if I poured it into my kitchen drain often?

Question

For people like me who likes to eat fried food, I use a lot of cooking oil. I preferably use vegetable oil because it is cheaper and healthier as well. Olive oil and other premium oil though more expensive than vegetable oil is not quite as healthy.

It is a known fact that any food that is fried in used oil which had been used over and over again is unhealthy and has potential to cause cancer in people. Eating food fried in dirty oil can cause other heart problem and high blood pressure complication. This is precisely the reason why I like to use new vegetable cooking oil as much as I can afford. It gives a better taste to the food and allows me to eat healthy too.

What I have been doing was pouring the used cooking oil into my kItchen sink drain pipe very often. I wonder if my kitchen drain is going to get clogged or will my house septic tank back flow up onto my basement drain hole? I guess I must have already done quite a lot of damage to my drain pipe by pouring cooking oil into it.

Answer 1

it is never a good idea to dispose off your used cooking oil by pouring them into your kitchen sink. Over the course of time, your kitchen drain pipe will get clogged and then you will have a tough time trying to unclog your kitchen sink drain. If you have been doing just that for quite sometime, now is the best time to stop pouring used cooking oil into your kitchen sink drain. I have seen people whose septic tank was destroyed and their drain pipe clogged with thick layers of cooking oil. At times, this may also causes back flow of water onto your basement due to septic tank oil problem. It cost money to call a drain professional to unclog your drain pipe or to fix your septic tank.

What you should be doing to properly dispose off your used cooking oil are:

1. If cooking oil is not much in quantity, you can put them into a plastic bag (Without holes) and soak some dry paper towel along with the cooking oil. The paper towel will absorb most of the cooking oil. Allow this plastic bag with cooking oil to freeze in your freezer or outside if temperature is below freezing. Let the oil hardens and place it in your green bin. Freezing can be done only during winter. But if summer time, simply use more of the paper towel to soak up the cooking oil and then throw in green bin.

2. You can bring your cooking oil to one of the City's drop off depots close to your local home area. They will be most willing to help you dispose off the cooking oil correctly.

3. For larger quantity between 10 Litres to 50 Litres, you can request a free pickup online or by calling your city's hotline number.

Comments

How to recycle your cooking oil or dispose off properly: