Each year, families and friends across the UK come together to eat, drink and be merry! This year was no exception – gorging on mum’s famous Christmas dinner and then indulging in grandma’s legendary Christmas pudding that she has been nurturing over the past 6 months. It is safe to say that most of the nation is now trying to shed some of that Christmas fat!
The same goes for the drainage systems, over the Christmas period there is a significant rise in people disposing of fat and oils down the sink, causing absolute havoc in the drains as they try to cope with the sheer amount of congealed fat building up.
Need to Shed the Fat!
The congealed fat that is building up steadily in the drains is often mashed up with all kinds of non-flushable items that people have disposed of down the loo. This combination of fat, oils, wet wipes, sanitary towels and all kinds of other items then goes on to form enormous, foul-smelling fatbergs, or ‘Turkeybergs’ as they are known around the festive season.
Blockages in the form of fatbergs have been found to weigh up to a huge 15 tonnes and reach the size of a double-decker bus! As you can imagine, blockages of this size are an enormous problem. They can take weeks to remove, resulting in the flow of water in the drains being very limited, which can lead to problems for the residence of that particular area.
Drainage specialists across the country are urging people to think about what they are putting down their drains. Homeowners and businesses are being encouraged to stop pouring fats down the sink and stop flushing non-flushable items. London in particular suffers substantially due to condensed living conditions.
Fat affecting the winter living
The wet weather last year was almost unbearable, with areas throughout the UK suffering from extreme flooding. This forced people to leave their homes and businesses and resulted in personal belongings being ruined and destroyed. The amount of rainfall was the highest on record, leaving the drains not able to cope with gallons of rain water. Whilst not the only reason for the flooding, but certainly a significant factor, the congealed fat in the drains reduced the water flow, leaving the systems unable to manage the water from heavy rainfall and resulting in an increase in flooding.
By reducing the amount of oils and fats that are disposed of down the drains, we will decrease the occurrence of gigantic fatbergs that are sometimes the cause of floods. Do your bit for the city – think about how you’re disposing of these kinds of items, and whether or not you’re currently one of the culprits behind these fatty monstrosities!