Stop Sewage Spills by Properly Disposing of Thanksgiving Dinner Cooking Oil

Turkey makes a delicious Thanksgiving dinner, but the leftover oil not only clogs arteries, it also clogs pipes, which leads to sewage spills. This year, cooking grease has led to 40,040 gallons of sewage to spill into local water just in the City of San Diego. San Diego Coastkeeper, which protects, and restores swimmable, fishable and drinkable waters, offers these tips for properly disposing of leftover cooking fats, oils and grease.

• Follow these simple guidelines put out by the City of San Diego.
• For small amounts of F.O.G., scrape out or use paper towels to wipe your pans, and then place the F.O.G. or soiled paper towels in the garbage.
• Pour excess fat into used milk or frozen juice cartons, let harden and then place it in your garbage.
• For larger amounts of F.O.G. (like after deep frying that turkey), City of San Diego residents can recycle their cooking oil and grease at the Miramar Landfill Recycling Center. A cooking oil recycling bin is available to for disposal of up to 30 gallons of cooking oil and grease. There is no charge for the service.
• I Love a Clean San Diego refers people to the closest place to recycle cooking oil all over the county.

– San Diego Coastkeeper Press Release