Keep fats, oils, and grease out of the drain

Pouring fats, oils and grease down the drain causes clogs and sewer backups. Learn simple ways to safely dispose of them and protect your home, pipes and neighbourhood.

Common sources of fats, oils, or grease

Fats, oils, and grease come from everyday cooking. They include:

Meat drippings and lard
Cooking oil, butter and margarine
Sauces, spreads and salad dressings
Milk, yogurt and other dairy products
Food scraps

When fats, oils and grease are poured down any sink or toilet in your home, they cool, harden and stick to pipes. Over time, this buildup can lead to clogs, unpleasant odours and sewer backups, resulting in costly repairs for property owners across the city.

A man pouring grease from a frying pan into a jar.

How to dispose of fats, oils and grease

Here are some simple steps you can take at home to keep fats, oils and grease out of your pipes.

Scrape all food from pans and dishes into your green organics bin, before loading the dishwasher.
Wipe down greasy dishes, including sauces and dressings, with a paper towel instead of running under hot water.
Let excess fats, oils and grease cool and store them in a sealed container until you can dispose of it.

Don't

Don’t rinse greasy dishes with hot water and soap because it pushes grease into your pipes where it will solidify.
Don’t pour fats, oil or grease into your garbage disposal, toilet or sink, even in small amounts.
Don’t flush anything but toilet paper. Tissues, cotton swabs, dental floss and even wipes marked as flushable belong in the trash.

Unsure of what goes where when disposing food scraps and household items?

Check the City of Edmonton’s WasteWise app to learn more about what belongs in your bins, and what doesn’t.

Questions about fats, oils and grease

No. All grease cools quickly and sticks to pipes. Over time, it builds up and blocks the flow of wastewater.

No. All drains in your home lead to the same sewer system. Flushing cooking oil down the toilet causes the same problems as pouring it down the sink.

You could face costly sewer backups in your home, and the inconvenience of cleanups and plumbing repairs.

Working together to protect our pipes and environment

Keeping fats, oils and grease out of the drain helps prevent sewer clogs, protects your home and keeps Edmonton’s sewer system flowing smoothly. It can help reduce maintenance costs for everyone.

Fats, oils and grease cause real damage

EPCOR crews respond to over 100 sewer blockages each year, and 70 per cent of those blockages are caused by grease buildup. We clean thousands of pipes annually to prevent backups, but we need your help to keep the system flowing.

Everyone’s drain is connected, even condos and apartments

Whether you live in a house, condo or apartment, your drain connects to the same sewer system. What goes down your sink affects your neighbours too.

Large amounts of oil belong at Eco Stations

If you have more than 1 litre of used cooking oil, take it to a City of Edmonton Eco Station. Large amounts can spill during garbage collection and harm the environment.

Grease-free drains protect your home and community

Fats, oils and grease clogs pipes, causes backups and leads to expensive repairs. Keeping them out of the drain helps protect your home, your neighbourhood and our shared environment.

EPCOR responds to calls from homeowners with sewer troubles that are directly related to blockages resulting from FOGS buildup.

In addition, crews respond to approximately 125 mainline blockages each year. Historically, nearly half of these blockages are due to problems with FOGS.

Grease is found on the cleaning equipment during routine cleaning of the sewer lines. Grease buildup is confirmed by running a small camera through the line to determine what is causing the blockage.

Edmonton has more than 8,000 km of sewer pipe in total consisting of:

3,762 km of sanitary pipe that handles the wastewater from residences.
3,432 km of storm pipe that handles the runoff from rain and snow melt.
822 km of combined sewer pipe that handles both wastewater and stormwater.

Pipes are cleared by special equipment that uses high pressure water to remove the grease from the walls of the pipe. A vacuum process is then used to remove the dislodged grease from the manhole.

We have a number of pipes that are on regular flushing routes to ensure that the grease buildup doesn’t cause any blockages in the system and impact customers. We flush almost 2,500 pipes every year on regular routes just to ensure that the buildup doesn’t impact anyone.

In total, we aim to have around 450 km of pipe proactively cleaned yearly and almost 50% of that is due to grease in the system.

There are approximately 3,600 km of pipe in the sanitary and combined (sewers used for both sanitary and stormwater) sewer systems. Each year, about 150 kilometres can be televised. Based on these numbers, it would take 20 years to televise the entire city. Therefore, it is not possible to monitor all the sewer lines for grease buildup on a regular basis.

No. Wastewater from every toilet, shower, kitchen sink, dishwasher, or bathtub is connected to a single sewer pipe from your residence that goes into the public wastewater collection system.

Used cooking oil should be placed in a capped, plastic jug, labeled, and set out for garbage collection. Amounts larger than 1 litre should go to an Eco Station for disposal.

Cooking oil does not solidify, so there is a chance the container can break and oil can spill during garbage collection, causing an environmental hazard.

Yes. Everyone should dispose cooking fats, oils, and grease properly, rather than pouring them down the drain.