Grease traps , also known as grease interceptors, are plumbing systems that serve as our first line of defence in the environment when it comes to preventing fats, oil and grease (FOG) from entering the water waste management system and eventually the ocean. Waste water treatment plants are not able to cope with FOG and hence they must be treated at source.
Grease traps are usually made of steel, hard plastic, fiberglass or concrete and placed inside the kitchen or buried underground, and are very important when it comes to reducing the impact of FOG waste on business operations and the environment.
When fats, oils and grease from hotels, restaurants, food processing plants and other FOG producing establishments gets into the wastewater unmitigated, it would have the similar effect to that of an oil spill.
Poorly designed and maintained grease traps are a health hazard to staff and customers, and can be a financial risk to your business. Municipal fines for non-compliance, call out fees for blockages and costs of pest control can spiral out of control.
The overall effectiveness and costs to maintain grease traps depends on how well the grease traps are managed and cared for.
Certain FOGS’s, detergents, hot water and enzyme based food preparation and cleaning products can reduce the ability of the trap to process and release effluent into the sewer network – and can solidify and cause blockages in the grease trap and further down the drainage system.
Animal and vegetable based FOG’s are more difficult to treat because of poor solubility in water and their tendency to separate from the waste water stream causing further blockages and odors.
Fats, oils and grease from food waste are hydrocarbons. The difficulty in breaking down any hydrocarbon is the long carbon chains within the hydrocarbons.
FOGX Bio-Ecoflush bacteria are able to break down these carbon links quickly, efficiently and in an environmentally friendly manner as FOGX Bio-Ecoflush is a completely naturally occurring group of bacteria.
The floating FOG in any grease trap is a continuous process, as the inflow never ceases during normal kitchen operations.
The food that drops to the bottom cannot be decomposed by FOGX Bio-Ecoflush as it sits in an anaerobic zone, – however the FOG are on the surface, and therefore are aerated and can be aggressively decomposed by FOGX Bio-Ecoflush.