With Halloween and Thanksgiving coming up, the District would like to remind you to dispose of pumpkin guts and cooking grease properly. Never put either down the drain or flush down the toilet. You may end up with a plumbing nightmare on your hands!
Pumpkin guts are sticky, seedy, and stringy and can stick to the inside of your pipes or wrap around the blades in your garbage disposal creating a terrifying clog. When pumpkin innards dry, they become sticky like glue and could cling to the sides of your pipes causing unwanted build up and result in a clog. Clogged pipes not only create a mess and cost you money, but they also create unnecessary water waste. Flushing the guts and seeds down the toilet can result in an even more horrifying scene than an overflow in your kitchen.
At Thanksgiving time, holiday cooking can leave gallons of unwanted oil and grease to clean up. Used cooking oil can congeal, resulting in clogs and blockages in homes as well as in the collection system. Pipes blocked by grease is an increasing cause of sewer overflows. Too often, grease is washed into the plumbing system, usually through the kitchen sink. Grease sticks to the insides of sewer pipes (both on your property and in the streets). Over time, grease can build up and block the entire pipe.
Avoid clogged pipes by scraping grease and food scraps into a can or the trash for safe disposal. Raw sewage overflowing in your home is not only unpleasant, but also costly to you, the homeowner. Increased amounts of grease entering the sanitary sewer system can also lead to higher sewer bills for increased operations and maintenance costs.
Kitchen sinks are not trash cans! Can the grease and prevent sewer backups!