How Does A Grease Trap Or Grease Interceptor Work?
The buildup of waste in the drainage system can cause some serious and expensive clogs. For this reason, grease traps (or grease interceptors) are designed to hamper Fats, Oils, and Grease (FOG), solid waste material, and debris that creep into the drainage system of municipal or privately owned on-site sewerage systems.
How Does Grease Trap Work?
The use of grease traps dates back from the Victorian days of 1800’s. Today, almost after 100 years, the technology of grease trap has not changed essentially.
Grease traps act like a retention chamber. They are plumbing devices used to stop most FOG (fat, oil, and gases) and solids so that they do not enter into the waste water disposal system, and the water component can pass through it. When FOGs and solids are accumulated, they naturally flow up to the surface of the water, and get ‘trapped’ by the grease trap. For the grease trap cleaning to be efficient, it should be cleaned at regular intervals. The FOG waste should be collected by professional licensed waste contractors, and dumped off at facilities that are built for the disposal of such waste (licensed facility). By law, grease traps should be emptied when the grease sludge is filled by 25% in the tank. Commercial grease traps are used in kitchens of restaurants or food service departments.
Many cities of Ireland are increasingly facing the issue of drain blockage in the public drainage systems caused by FOGs. This results in increased environmental pollution, such as flooding of dirt on the premises/street, and a foul smell in the atmosphere. For this reason, the capital of the country, Dublin has initiated a Programme in 2008, known as the Dublin City Council’s Fat, Oil, and Grease Programme. It is targeted towards controlling the FOG of the public drainage systems, by imposing a license that makes it obligatory to comply with the conditions of the FOG Programme, such as maintenance of commercial grease trap, appropriate disposal of the waste lubricants, size of the grease trap, and the amount of FOG that can be disposed.
If you want your grease interceptors to be effective, you should install units that are properly sized, constructed, and maintained efficiently so that it can easily be pumped by waste haulers. More so, for a healthy grease trapper, ensure that you keep it maintained by performing weekly/monthly/quarterly cleaning schedules by professionals with quality standards.
Therefore, maintenance of grease traps (or interceptors) is essential. If more spent FOG is reserved in the grease traps for a long period of time, the efficiency level of the grease trap may diminish.