Keep Your Plumbing Flowing Despite Easter

We know, we know—we covered this topic at Thanksgiving and again around the holidays, but there are still a lot of Calgarians dumping grease down their pipes. Every major holiday, we hear from Calgarians who have clogged their plumbing, experienced a sewage spill, or have a pipe backing up. So with Easter coming up, we’re going to ask Calgarians once more to take it easy on their plumbing.

Avoid Damage to Your Plumbing.

Whether you have a conventional drain or a garbage disposal, grease doesn’t belong in your plumbing. Your garbage disposal won’t remove oils, and as the hot grease quickly cools down the drain, it sticks to the pipe. This narrows the diameter of the pipe increasing pressure and decreasing draining speed.

The most common culprits for oils and greases are cooking fats (veggie oil, butter, lard, etc), creams of all types (including sour cream), mayonnaise, cheeses, dips, sauces, salad dressings, frosting, and gravy.

Snares & Strainers.

Delicious slabs of fatty meats or fried anything can also be a major contributor of grease. To make matters worse, if your pipes are already narrowed by collected fats, then these chunks of food scraps can become trapped. A snare or strainer in your sink will help prevent foods from accidentally being lost in the plumbing. Instead, the collected food scraps can be placed in the compost where they belong.

Embrace Composting!

The best way to dispose of food scraps and greases is to use your composting bin. Calgary has one of the most comprehensive composting programs in all of Canada. We should be very proud of our program and take complete advantage of it. Our compost can handle up to 2L of combined grease, drippings, sauces, and fats in our green bin. That’s a ton of oils! For solid fats, let them cool to room temperatures and then toss them in. For liquid oils, absorb the grease using paper towel, sawdust, or a compostable kitty litter. Put the oil-fat mixture into a certifiable compostable bag or a paper bag. Then place the rolled up bag into your green cart.

At the Plumbing Paramedics, we want to help Calgarians develop the right habits, so their plumbing stays in great shape as long as possible. But of course, if something goes wrong and your drain is backed up or clogged or you have a sewage spill, contact us right away! We’re here to help you face any plumbing emergency.