Yorkshire Water’s top tips to stay blockage free this Christmas

Yorkshire Water is urging customers not to pour cooking fats from Christmas dinners down the sink to help prevent blockages that could cause a stink over the festive period. 

Pouring fats, oils and greases (FOG) down the sink is a major cause of blockages across the network, especially at Christmas. When hot fat or cooking oil is tipped down the sink, it cools, coagulates and prevents flows of sewage, and can even cause fatbergs to form. 

Yorkshire Water spends over three quarters of a million pounds per year on responding to blockages caused by FOG, and with over 20,000 miles of pipework across the region, that’s a hefty sum.  

As FOG blockages are entirely preventable, this is money that could be spent elsewhere improving the network and helping Yorkshire Water to provide an even better service to customers. Fatbergs can use a lot of time, money and resource to remove, and they’re relatively simple to avoid. 

FOG blockages can lead to people being unable to flush their toilets, depending on the severity of the blockage, or sewage escapes from the network that can enter customers properties and gardens or even impact the environment and pollute our rivers. 

Yorkshire Water’s top tips to keep blockage free this Christmas: 

1. Allow cooking oil to cool and solidify, then scoop it up and throw it in the bin 
2. Alternatively, pour used cooking oil and fat into a container ready to use again – good for the pocket and the pipes! 
3. Freeze any leftover gravy in a container, or if there’s only a small amount left, soak it up in kitchen roll and throw it in the bin 
4. Use a sink strainer to catch any bits of food waste and solids before they get into the pipes 
5. Remember to ‘Bin it, don’t Block it!’ 

James Harrison, head of customer field services at Yorkshire Water, said: “We know at this time of year many people will be cooking Christmas dinners for their friends and family. We understand that it is easy to pour cooking fats down the sink without thinking, but they can have a significant impact for homeowners and on the wider sewer network over time. 

“Fats cool and congeal in pipework and can lead to people being unable to use their toilets and sinks in their home. If the fats enter the sewer network they can join together over time and create fatbergs, which restrict the flow of sewage and in the worst case can lead to pollution to the local environment or watercourses. It’s important people bin cooking fats, oils and greases over the Christmas period to reduce the likelihood of blockages in their area.”