The used cooking oil coming back to life!
Official numbers and forgotten potential
Facts
Section 111 of the Water Industry Act 1991 makes it illegal to permit any substance, which may interfere with the free flow of the sewerage system, to pass down any drain or sewer connecting to a public sewer. This will include fats, oils and grease.
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​The Environmental Audit Committee has released a publication on the 23rd of August 2011, the UK Government has estimated that the nation produces 250,000,000 L of UCO per annum.
The same publication also states that:
" The UK currently has NO collection of UCO from domestic premises provided by a national body or by a majority of local authorities, and so a high proportion of this oil is disposed of down the drain or sent to landfill. "
Consequences
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WATER​
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1L of UCO can contaminate 1,000,000L of water.
The oil in the water causes the oxygen levels to drop drastically initiating the PH level of the water to change and with that an acidification process begins. The river can no longer support fish, insects and animals that live in and around the water.​​​
PIPES
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Solidified UCO in our drains causes over 150,000 blockages in the UK every single year. Furthermore, the damages due to faulty pipelines are totalling £15,000,000 every single year. (this record is from 2011, when the population was 63 M)
LANDFILLS​
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According to all authorities (including the Council and the Thames Water) the advice is to "bin it, don't block it" which perhaps solves the issue of damaged pipes, but sadly it still is very harmful for the following reasons: When disposing UCO in the general waste it will not only end up contaminating the entire container, but at the same time it will also attract rodents / pests (such as rats, that carry serious diseases) that feed from the UCO this way causing pest control problems which lead to serious health hazards.
From our waste bins they will end up on the landfills, contaminating them and our water supply, as after a rain the UCO leaches into the soil all the way to the groundwater, which we then end up using as our drink water.
Our vision involves You
For more than 13 years there was no further official publication on the topic, making this an invisible, but extremely serious environmental issue. After all this time the UCO collection from domestic premises still remains an unsolved problem. According to official data by Statista, an average person in the UK purchases 2.82L edible oil per annum, most of which goes down the drains.