Pouring grease into sink leads to clogs, overflows

The city of Houston spends more than $300,000 of your tax dollars clearing clogs in sewer pipes. The biggest culprit in apartment sewer pipe clogs is cooking grease being poured down kitchen sink drains. What doesn’t harden and clog your apartment’s pipes tends to harden and clog the city’s pipes farther down the line. Hot grease is a liquid, but — as any cook knows — it solidifies as it cools. This happens inside your apartment property’s pipes, leading to clogs, overflows, bad smell and significant expense. What can you do to help?

Learn about the problem and teach others that grease should not go in the sink. The city of Houston has a website with more information on this topic: www.corralthegrease.org.

The city of Houston also provides free universal plastic can lids. You can repurpose any can, pour grease into it and seal it with this lid. Then, pull the lid off and throw the can away when the grease hardens, or use the grease.

Ask your manager about getting these for you and your neighbors.

The city also provides free food scrapers — plastic handle-free spatulas you can use to scrape grease off pots and plates straight into the trash before washing them in the sink or placing them in the dishwasher. Hair and other particles may contribute to the clogging problem, so use sink and bathtub strainers.

This problem isn’t just about money. Keeping our sewer system clean protects our natural environment. Clogs can cause sewer leaks and overflows, which can drain into storm sewers and end up in our streams and bayous.

HAA is working to expand its educational curricula to include more information about this in the classes they offer for apartment owners, managers and maintenance technicians. Help them by doing your part to keep the city’s pipes clean.