To wonder how to get rid of liquid fat?

[CarlaH]

We keep being told not to pour oil or liquid fat down the sink because it causes problems for the water companies.

How are we meant to dispose of it? Googling says we should put it into a glass or plastic container and throw it into the main waste but we are supposed to recycle those things aren't we?

I don't have suitable empty glass or plastic containers just lying around and I certainly don't have plastic containers with lids apart from the ones I want to keep like Tupperware.

What do most people do with it?

Put a bit of tin foil in the plug hole. Pour the fat in. When it sets scrunch up and chuck it in the bin?

How much liquid fat do you have? I don’t have any. I suppose you could blot it with paper towels or an old T shirt and then bin it?

I rarely have oil to dispose of - I don’t deep fry anything and tend to use spray oil when I cook.
In years gone by (too many years to recall) I would have let it cool then put it in something like an empty milk carton with the lid on and in the main bin.

If it’s a liquid that will solidify when cold I wait till it’s cold then wrap and bin it. If it’s oil that won’t I pour in an empty bottle and bin it.
You can’t possibly put everything in to exactly the right bin so I don’t over think it

You can buy stuff on Amazon that you pour into it and it solidifies and then you throw it in the bin. Can’t remember what it’s called but a quick google will tell you. Or go out and buy a cheap large water bottle from a shop and fill up that

What prompted the post was some liquid we poured from a slow cooked pork dish. It's usually not that much and I mostly tended to get very hot water and loads of washing up liquid and let it go down the sink but apparently we shouldn't be doing that.

Yes I do exactly this

I pour it into a yogurt pot, hummus tub, margarine tub, icecream tub, whatever's available and throw that away. I recycle mostly but that's a sensible re-use situation afaic.

Any fat that is solid enough goes in our food bin so fat from frying bacon for example isn't a problem. Fortunately we don't deep fry anything so don't have loads of oil.

That's interesting. I don't suppose you have a link?

I keep jam jars and they just have to go in normal rubbish rather than recycling

Freeze it until recycling day, pop the frozen fat out of the plastic container into newspaper, wrap and put in food recycling or general rubbish if you don't have separate food bins.

I throw it in the bin (in a yoghurt pot or similar) as the lesser of two evils compared to putting it down the sink.

I mix it with flour until it's a paste then put it in the bin.

I don't have much but pour it into an empty yoghurt pot, wiping what's left into the pot with kitchen towel, then scrunch the kitchen towel into the pot and bin it.
One small yoghurt pot isn't going to make much difference compared with the damage that's done by pouring it down the drain.
If I roast something like a chicken, I line the pan with foil first. Let the fat congeal and fold the foil round it before binning

Meat fat will solidify, so you could just have scraped that into the bin when it was cold and solid, or into some kitchen roll to be binned.

I keep an empty tin can by the sink and empty any fat or oil into it, when it's full, I scrunch some kitchen roll in the top and nestle it upright in the kitchen bin, to go out with the general waste. That minimises the tins that don't go to recycling. Ghee tins are great because they have a lid.

Definitely not down the sink, that's how fatbergs form and they cost us millions.

Don't deep fry, it's so unhealthy. If you insist on having fries you can make them in an air fryer.

If there are little quantities of oil left from normal frying, I just pour them in the bin as there are always kitchen towels etc in there to absorb it

We pour it into a container, then drop it off at the local Chinese takeaway. They get paid for their waste oil so they dont mind.

I put mine on the garden some place, hoping it'll add something to the soil. However it's never meat based. And never very much.

When tidying up after a meal, reheat the fat slightly and pour it into an empty jam (or other) jar. Put the lid on and do the same next time you have leftover fat until the jar is full. Then put the jar full of fat in your landfill bin. Then you are only 'wasting' one recyclable container.

I usually find a random container that would normally be recycled but, as others have said, not recycling one bottle, tin or pot is better than pouring fat down the sink

This

I put mine in a jar and chuck it. I don't use that much so I only end up throwing away one glass jar every few months, the current one has been going for ages. The world isn't going to end any sooner because of that. It's far better than putting the fat into the drains

In that situation I put some clingfilm in a small bowl, spoon the fat off the surface into it and let it cool.

Pour into porridge oats and put out for the birds
Pour into flour or any other absorbent medium then put in food waste bin, or just wait until its solid and put in food waste.
If it was fat from meat, my grandparents (and parents) would have poured it into a bowl and when it was cool, spread it on bread ("bread and dripping")