With the holidays, come family gatherings, parties and delicious home-cooked feasts. This is also the time of year when Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) sees the most amount of cooking grease poured down the kitchen sink, resulting in smelly blockages in city sanitary sewer lines and costly damage to homeowners’ pipes. DWU is urging Dallas residents of all ages to properly dispose of their leftover cooking grease this holiday season.

The good news is that proper disposal of leftover cooking grease is not difficult at all. The city’s grease abatement program, Cease the Grease, has assembled a list of best practices to use throughout December.

• First and foremost, avoid pouring things like leftover vegetable oil and food scraps down the kitchen sink. Instead, pour the grease into a sealable container, freeze and dispose in the trash when the container is full.
• Next, it’s helpful to know that large amounts of cooking oil and grease can actually be recycled. DWU has a number of grease drop-off locations throughout Dallas. Residents can drop off their leftover cooking grease and then the Cease the Grease team picks it up and takes it to a nearby wastewater treatment plant, where it is turned into methane gas to run engines that make electricity.
• Finally, before putting your dirty dishes in the sink, wipe off excess grease with a paper towel and throw the paper towel in the trash.

DWU wishes everyone good cheer this holiday season and not to clog your (or your neighbors’) pipes.

For more information, visit the Cease the Grease Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CeaseTheGrease