Live Healthy: DHEC’s Health & Environment Blog

Live Healthy: DHEC’s Health & Environment Blog

5 gallons of leftover peanut oil? How to properly dispose of your Thanksgiving grease

November 22, 2017

By Adrianna Bradley

Thanksgiving grease can cook up plumbing disasters if you don't know how to dispose of it correctly. While it seems tempting it's important that you don't flush that pan full of oil down your sink! Grease, oils, and fats can cause clogging problems in sewage systems.

Did you know that recyclers can turn your old grease into biofuel to power vehicles? Yes, that's right. New techniques are allowing researchers to make biodiesel entirely from waste grease more cheaply and efficiently. Biodiesel is a clean-burning fuel that is used in many types of motor vehicles. So let's save our pipes and sewer systems and make fuel instead.

There are many recycling centers across our state. Click here to find the closest location to you where you can go to drop off your old grease.

Cooking Oil Disposal Don'ts

  1. Don't pour oil down your drain or toilet: It can clog your pipes and/or the city sewer mains.
  2. Don't dispose of oil in compost bins or piles: Fats in general are bad for compost, and cooking oil is nothing but fat.
  3. Don't pour hot oil into the trash.

Tags

Food Waste