How To Keep Your Pipes Safe Amid Holiday Cooking Frenzies

BRYN MAWR, PA — Thanksgiving is nearly here and other major holidays such as Hanukkah and Christmas are right around the corner.

And with many in Southeastern Pennsylvania preparing to cook holiday meals for the holidays, Aqua Pennsylvania is letting customers know what not to do to keep their pipes safe this season.

The utility company has provided tips for its residential and business customers as kitchen activity increases around the holidays.

Recommendations include:

• Never pour cooking grease down sink drains or into toilets.
• If homeowners have leftover cooking grease, carefully pour the warm, not hot, grease into a metal can, wait for it to cool, and dispose of it in the trash.
• Keep strainers in sink drains to catch food scraps and other solids.
• Scrape food scraps and grease into a trash can.

Garbage disposals do not keep fat, oil and grease out of plumbing systems or prevent clogs.

While these items go down the drain as liquids, they solidify and, over time, can completely block pipes and cause raw sewage backups in homes and overflows in streets.

Aqua encourages customers to watch its new video featuring easy tips for the proper disposal of fats, oils and grease.

Aqua also reminds customers to dispose of wipes, even those labeled flushable, in the trash instead of flushing them.

Wipes, tissues and napkins do not break down and can cause backups in household plumbing and larger blockages in wastewater collection systems.