Restaurant Best Practice To Protect Your Septic System

10 January 2019

Restaurant kitchen wastewater usually contains high levels of food waste and grease. If grease or food solids collected at the systems and damage the system so that it no longer functions to dispose of wastewater. This leads to costly leaching field repairs. The key factor of grease free plumbing is staff training and staff procedures. Protect your sewer system by following these simple procedures.

1. Install an individual grease trap under the sink. These devices are designed to trap scrap food and floating grease from wastewater before it leaves further to system. Wastewater enters the trap where grease rises and is continually skimmed off the water surface, it can remove a large percentage of grease in wastewater.
2. Practice water conservation. Kitchens produce surge water flows during mealtime dishwashing periods. Surge water loads push wastewater through the grease trap too rapidly for grease to separate. Water conservation helps prevent surge loading.
3. Scrape plates and cookware kitchen utensils to remove all food waste, especially cooking oils and creamy sauces and gravies which are high in grease, before rinsing dishes. Thorough scraping of dishes will prevent the majority of grease in your waste stream from entering your septic system.
4. Clean the Grease Trap periodically. During the operations, clean up the trapped food waste at strainer per 4 hours, depend on your waste load. Do the general cleaning every night after closing.
5. Low temperature water may assist oil grease to separate out in the grease trap, while high water temperatures cause grease to become emulsified and may be carried over into your leaching sewer system.

6. Find for special dishwashing or detergents product that promote rapid oil/water separation.These kind products are formulated to release oil quickly so that it can rise to the water surface instead of remaining emulsified.

7. Never pour harsh chemicals down the drain. Chemical kills bacteria in the septic. Use proper dosage of solvents, cleaners and disinfectants. Solvents and cleaners can cause grease to become emulsified and be carried past the grease trap. Excess use of disinfectants reduces bacterial action in the septic system which in turn reduces treatment of wastewater.
8. Use shortening in place of liquid vegetable oil. Shortenings solidify at room temperature while liquid oils do not. Shortening oils will separate out more rapidly and thoroughly in a grease trap while liquid vegetable oils are more likely to be carried over.
9. Bacteria and Enzymes. The use of bacteria and enzymes can greatly help degrease the fats oil in sewage systems. Make sure that the application is at lowest load or closing time to maximizing the product performance.
10. Place liquid foods(dairy products, milkshakes, salad dressings, condiments, batters, gravy, sauces) into the food recycling bin. Place and deposit waste oil and grease into waste bin. Do not pour directly to system.
11. Install permanent strainer to protect sewer from damage due to dirt and paticles that may be carried by the process fluid.
12. Service septic system and grease trap regularly:
    • Pump central grease trap minimum quarterly. Leaving grease in the grease trap too long causes it to harden which makes it very difficult to pump out.
    • Only the layer of grease which accumulates on the water surface should be removed when the trap is pumped. Leave the underlying liquid to act as a reservoir of water so that new grease entering the trap can cool rapidly and solidify.
    • Pump septic tank frequently to prevent buildup and carryover of solids. Because restaurant wastewater contains high levels of solid food waste sludge may accumulate rapidly.
13. If you are upgrading your septic system: consider installing a larger in-ground grease trap (central grease trap), or a series of grease traps. Volume is intended to provide wastewater with a long enough detention time so that it can cool and grease can separate and solidify. The longer the detention time, the better the grease removal.