Unfortunately, our beaches suffer significantly due to the huge volume of fats, oils and greases (FOGs) wrongly poured down kitchen sinks. When FOGs are poured down sinks or drains, they quickly cool and congeal on sewer walls, restricting the amount of sewage the system can process resulting in raw sewage overflows into rivers, the sea or, even worse, into our homes.
To highlight this problem, we teamed up with the Environment Agency for our FOGS campaign – Protect Your Beaches, Stop Pouring Fats, Oils and Greases.
The UK Water industry estimates there are 150,000 sewer blockages caused by FOGs being poured down the sink. These blockages can result in sewage discharges from combined sewer overflows (CSOs) at many popular beaches right around the UK.
The new FOGs campaign, Protect Your Beaches, Stop Pouring Fats, Oils and Greases was launched in 2012 to business communities in Seaton and East Looe in Cornwall, which are both failing basic European water quality standards in part due to fats, oils and greases in the system.
SAS volunteers distributed FOGs posters, leaflets & stickers packed full of handy hints and top tips to help businesses manage their kitchen, protect local beaches and improve water quality at over 150 local businesses.