When fats, oils and grease cool down, they solidify and build up in sewer pipes.

This greasy buildup will clog your drains and may result in sewer overflows in your home. Sewer blockages and overflows may damage your property and may result in costly pipe-repair and cleanup costs.

Here’s how you avoid this:

Clean up cooking oil or other greasy foods with an absorbent material such as paper towel, newspaper or coffee grounds. Place it in a paper carton (milk, juice or ice cream carton) and dispose of it in the green waste cart. To avoid bad smells and odors, freeze the contained mixture and place it in the green waste container at collection day.

For greasy pans that need to be soaked: first pour off the grease into a container as mentioned above. Then place a paper towel over the drain basket to catch grease and food particles as you pour the soaking water down the drain. Dispose of the paper towel and greasy food items in the green waste container.