Answers to Some Questions You Might Have About Grease Trap Cleaning in Your Facility
A restaurant owner may not want to think about having the grease traps cleaned in their facility; after all, this doesn't increase business or bring in customers, and it also costs money. However, it is necessary and something you don't want to overlook no matter the type of food establishment you run. Note a few questions you might have about grease trap cleaning if you're a restaurant owner or manager and then you can better understand why and how this work should be done.
Is there anything that can make grease trap cleaning less needed?
You may be legally obligated to have the grease trap in your facility cleaned out on a certain schedule, but may find that you need to clean it out, or have it cleaned out by a professional, more often than that schedule, if the solids in the trap fill it up sooner. Note that you never want to use hot water to try to dissolve the grease in the trap and assume this will help it to drain away; the grease is likely to congeal once it reaches your plumbing pipes, and this can cause a backup. Your best choice for keeping the trap clean is to scrape the plates from your diners as much as possible, so that you throw away grease rather than rinse it away in the sink and then catch it in the trap.
Can a trap be cleaned by restaurant management?
In most areas you are legally allowed to clean out your own grease trap, but note that you might overlook many details in this cleaning. This can include noting the level of grease before the trap was cleaned; recording this might be legally required. You also need to clean the side of the trap and not just empty the grease and this involves certain detergents and tools that are meant for grease in particular.
You also want to think about what you will do with the grease once the trap is cleaned. In many areas, you are allowed to simply put it out with the trash, but this can mean adding more rubbish to landfills and letting the grease go to waste. Many grease trap cleaning services will have the grease they collect recycled; this might be for bio-fuels that are used in engines or for certain products that use animal grease and fats for lubrication. For these reason, very often it's better to leave this job to professionals, even if allowed to tackle it on your own.
