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London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

theguardian.com

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Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#31

Post by KozmoNau7 »

gambiting wrote: post #29
KozmoNau7 wrote: post #27

And this is why you never wash cooking oil or fats down the drain. If they don't clog your drains, they will collect like this and cause huge problems in sewers and water treatment plants. Pour it in an empty milk carton or whatever and throw it in the household trash. And pour a full kettle of boiling water down your kitchen sink drain once in a while, it'll prevent fat from collecting and it'll kill any nasty smell…

>>And don't flush wet wipes! Why do people still think this is OK? Because it literally says "flushable" on them?

Which is something the manufacturers continue to get away with, for absolutely no good reason.

Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#32

Post by gambiting »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #31
gambiting wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>And don't flush wet wipes! Why do people still think this is OK? Because it literally says "flushable" on them?

Which is something the manufacturers continue to get away with, for absolutely no good reason. Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

>>Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

On the other hand, I don't feel like consumer should have to care about this at all. If it says flushable, it should be flushable. I'd trust relevant agencies to enforce this, just like they already enforce "free range", "organic" and "juice" - at least here in UK those terms have a legal meaning behind them and consumers can safely know they get what they pay for. If a wipe says "flushable" but it isn't, then that should be rectified on the regulatory level.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#33

Post by kbutler »

joering2 wrote: post #19
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fluorine is an additive to prevent teeth decay; chlorine or chloramine is to prevent disease in the water. Both are routinely added in the US.

Exactly. Worth adding if you live in USA and have a chance to visit your local water treatment plantation (they always welcome visitors), go see their state-of-the-art system for treating water. What I didn't know is that there is very complicated system that forbids flushing water back into the central system to poison it. The idea is that a terrorist could plug themselves into pipe and inject poison that will trave…

Going to call "urban legend" on the terrorist angle.

Texas is putting it back into the municipal system.

https://www.texastribune.org/2012/06/11/texas-gets-creative-...

Basically, water treatment plants have to make human-safe water, but then they dump it into rivers or the aquifer, where it mixes with other water and is pulled out again downstream for purification. The logic is that we may as well skip the "mix it with untreated water" stage.

Google "toilet to tap" for more examples.

Bill Gates drank some:

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/01/10/3761823...

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#34

Post by omginternets »

>A third of Londoners admitted they didn't know you weren't supposed to flush fat down the sink.

So what am I supposed to do with it? Put it in the trash? That's not acceptable for the same reason that putting anything liquid in the rubbish bin isn't acceptable. :/

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#35

Post by detritus »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #27

And this is why you never wash cooking oil or fats down the drain. If they don't clog your drains, they will collect like this and cause huge problems in sewers and water treatment plants. Pour it in an empty milk carton or whatever and throw it in the household trash. And pour a full kettle of boiling water down your kitchen sink drain once in a while, it'll prevent fat from collecting and it'll kill any nasty smell…

I add in a load of detergent (Fairy!) to that occasional full kettle of boiling water down the plughole.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#36

Post by gadders »

omginternets wrote: post #34

>A third of Londoners admitted they didn't know you weren't supposed to flush fat down the sink. So what am I supposed to do with it? Put it in the trash? That's not acceptable for the same reason that putting anything liquid in the rubbish bin isn't acceptable. :/

Quite often you can wait for it to solidify before disposing of it.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#37

Post by omginternets »

gadders wrote: post #36
omginternets wrote: post #34

>A third of Londoners admitted they didn't know you weren't supposed to flush fat down the sink. So what am I supposed to do with it? Put it in the trash? That's not acceptable for the same reason that putting anything liquid in the rubbish bin isn't acceptable. :/

Quite often you can wait for it to solidify before disposing of it.

I have a tiny kitchen with only room for a few pots and pans, which is pretty much the norm in London. That's not a terribly viable solution, I'm afraid.

This isn't quite as bad as saying "don't poop in the toilet; wait for it to dry out before putting it in the trash", but it's in the same neighborhood.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#39

Post by merpnderp »

KozmoNau7 wrote: post #31
gambiting wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>And don't flush wet wipes! Why do people still think this is OK? Because it literally says "flushable" on them?

Which is something the manufacturers continue to get away with, for absolutely no good reason. Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

This was supposed to be the benefit of living in a highly regulated economy. If the regulators are worthless, then remove their drag on the economy. Otherwise make them worthwhile.

Re: London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’

#40

Post by merpnderp »

gambiting wrote: post #20
madaxe_again wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fat doesn't decompose very readily - which is why it's commonly used to seal jars of meat products like terrine and pâté. In anaerobic conditions, you get hydrolysis of fat, in which the water content is removed and the fats end up saturated and indigestible further by anaerobic processes. Cf. Corpse Wax. In aerobic conditions, they'll be broken down into aldehydes and ketones. I'm guessing that the interior of a mon…

Fat is such a fantastic store of energy I am really surprised nothing evolved to eat it in this form.

Given the recent Lancet study on the healthfulness of high fat diets, maybe these could be recycled for food.
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