Fat That You Don't Eat Can Be Harmful, Too

Air-frying pork belly produces a half-cup of fat.

Lately I've been using an inexpensive air fryer (really, it's a pot-shaped convection oven) for small roasts. It uses less energy than our large convection oven, and the grease is collected in a non-stick black pot. I no longer pour the grease down the drain.

The grease goes into a pyrex dish, hardens in the refrigerator, and the solids are dumped into the green compost bin. Having to call the plumber three times to clear the kitchen line at over $300 a pop (2014, 2016, and 2018) forces one to change.

If you won't stop pouring grease down the drain for yourself or your landlord, dear reader, stop doing it for the community. [bold added]

Part of the "fatberg" from the London sewer. (WSJ photo)

cities haven’t been able to stop people from pouring grease down the drain, resulting in catastrophic buildups of sludge in sewer systems.

When poured down the drain, the fat coats the sides of the water line, gradually building up and narrowing pipes. Grease that doesn’t stick to residential pipes eventually makes its way to the city sewer system, where it can accumulate to form massive blockages. Clogs have gotten so big that workers have to use shovels to get the fat out.

London officials had to excavate a 130-ton “fatberg” from the Whitechapel sewer last year. The monstrous glob was the size of 11 double-decker buses and consisted mostly of grease runoff and trash.

In Baltimore, officials last year had to scrape out a 24-inch pipe in midtown where grease had congealed, clogging 85% of the pipe. After noticing that there had been some overflows around the city center, the public-works department sent a camera down and discovered a 20-foot long buildup of fat, according to Jeffrey Raymond, chief of communications at the Baltimore Department of Public Works. “It was really pretty shocking,” he said.

After reading this article, I poured an extra-large dose of enzyme cleaner down the kitchen drain and let it sit overnight. Despite the resolve to change, however, the plumbers are still on speed-dial.