As if the dead animals and poop in our water towers wasn't enough to deal with, now it turns out we've got too much fat and grease in our sewers as well. The city's launching an initiative to educate residents on proper cooking oil disposal, lest our pipes explode and flood the Met with psycho-reactive slime.
Apparently, grease has been a pretty pervasive issue for sewer systems all over the country, but it's particularly problematic in New York City because of the sheer volume of restaurants and residents that pour cooking oils down their drains. "There are far too many people who don’t understand it’s not a good thing to take a frying pan, after you’re done making chicken cutlets, and pour the grease down the drain," Queens plumbing company owner Ted Vitanza told the Times. Queens has the most grease-related sewage backups of any borough, with grease accounting for 74 percent of backups in 2013; Staten Island follows with 55 percent, Manhattan and the Bronx tie at 49 percent and Brooklyn has the fewest at 46 percent.
Now, the Environmental Protection Agency's launched a grease-awareness program dubbed "Cease the Grease," holding workshops around town to keep the city's sewer system from turning into one giant french fry machine. It turns out the best way to dispose of cooking grease is to pour it into an non-meltable container like a coffee or tuna can while hot, then toss it in the trash after it's cooled. You can also use paper towels to scrub off dishes before washing them in the sink. And if that seems like a lot of work, at least you won't have to deal with a plumber. "It’s something that we have to think about so we don’t have complications,” a resident at LES's Baruch Houses told the Times, "And having to go through the headache of having to wait for people to come fix it.”
In other news, the UK might be getting hemp cooking oil soon. Everything is cooler over there.
