This article will cover apartment complex building grease trap reduction. The growing population in the United States demands for more residential areas. Since it’s very expensive to own your very own home in the present economy, apartment complexes are built on a regular basis. Ample space is provided in the units provided. A bedroom or two, a receiving area, a bathroom, and a kitchen are the basic features of every living area in an apartment complex. It’s truly a convenient and practical way to reside in bustling areas in the country.
Even if the apartment complex is considered as an essential component in the lives of Americans, it is still classified as one of the greatest contributors to the one of the biggest environmental issues in the country today—heavy FOG (fats, oils, grease) accumulation. This is mainly through the use of kitchens in the apartment complex. Some of the FOG comes from the human wastes that the residents excrete everyday but the bulk still comes from the daily food preparation. Grease materials are dominant in the American diet. These materials are carelessly dumped into the kitchen sinks on a daily basis. What the residents don’t understand is the grease and the solid food materials are not degraded by the garbage disposal units installed in the kitchen sink. They are just ground up or shaken but they are still the same when they enter the grease trap.
Apartment complex managers and owners often pay large fines and face lawsuits because of the relentless FOG overflow that happens. Even if they adhere to the regular pump outs and clean up schedules, they still encounter such problems with FOG. This crisis calls for a better means of apartment complex building grease trap reduction.
The grease trap is a mandatory component in all areas that prepare, serve, or manufacture food. In the apartment complex, all residents use the kitchen to prepare daily meals, several times a day. If it’s a large apartment complex, then a large grease trap should be installed. The passive type of grease interceptor is commonly used in an apartment complex. It only depends on gravity so there is no electricity used. The grease materials are dissolved during the washing process because of the hot water. But as the grease travels towards the grease trap, it cools down, solidifies, and floats on top of the effluent. The solid wastes sink to the bottom of the trap. With this, the effluent is supposed to travel clear and clean through the wastewater pipes until it gets to the wastewater treatment facility.
But because of too much FOG that’s dumped into kitchen sinks of all the residents in the apartment complex, the grease trap gets filled a lot faster and overflows with FOG before the scheduled pump out. The Fog spills over the wastewater and travels through the pipelines until it solidifies. The FOG sticks to the walls of the sewer pipes and get thicker as more FOG gets in with the wastewater. As a result, the pipes get totally blocked. Wastewater with FOG backs up in to the apartment complex and onto the surrounding water systems. Aquatic ecosystems get polluted and people acquire infections. The FOG crisis is creating a huge issue and this should be dealt with at the soonest.
Apartment complex building grease trap reduction can be effectively done by manually scraping off the grease before the utensils and dishes are washed up. Fine filters could also be installed in the drains and sinks. Most importantly, bioremediation should be encouraged. This is using non-pathogenic bacteria in getting rid of the solid wastes and FOG that have accumulated in the grease traps. Using bacteria in maintaining the grease trap can really help in the apartment complex building grease trap reduction. This is a very natural way of solving the FOG problem in apartment complexes. Large fines and lawsuits could finally be avoided. Health and the environment can then be kept safe for decades to come.