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?

The wild birds would go crazy for that, especially in winter when food is scarse

You could use a gravy separator for the pork juice & fat. Chill it in the fridge till it separates, pour the juice down the sink and scrape the fat into the food bin.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Separator-Strainer-Multifunctional-Separation-Degreasing/dp/B0GFWFSJ9F

We don't have much but it gets tipped into the food bin, which is lined with a compostable bag. The small amount of fat just mixes in with the vegetable peelings etc.

Pour it into an empty milk container and put it in the bin if a large amount. If a small amount absorb it with kitchen roll and put it in the bin. If you have cat litter maybe mix it with that.

Just use flour. Warm/liquid oil, add it slowly, mix it in and it will quickly clump up.

Don't go spending money on special products.

This sounds a good idea. I always have flour and plenty of it.

Thanks.

I put it in a cup to congeal in the fridge then dump it in my food waste bin. Do they not collect food waste where you live?

I would put a few sheets of kitchen roll in to speak up the fat which you can bin, then wash as normal. That’s what I do when I fry things like bhajis.

Mop it up with kitchen towel and put it in the bin.
If I have out of date bread/flour/ cornflour etc then I Save it to put in the food waste before I pour oil/fat in.

we have the council food bin. If the bin is already part full with some bread or similar absorbent food, I pour the oil on top. Or otherwise I’ll pour it in an old grotty mug in the fridge and then empty the mug into the food bin later.

We dont have solid fats, ours is all olive or sunflower/veg oil, so it just goes in the main bin

Will the pork fat not solidify when cold?
Anyway, perhaps raid the recycle bin for a container, or in future keep one to hand.

I don’t have lots of liquid fat but when I do, I pour it into tinfoil, add seeds and make fat balls for the birds. That’s more of a winter thing though, the rest of the time I wipe it off with kitchen roll which then goes into the food waste bin.

@CarlaH please don’t bung it down the sink. A fat ball can be created which is bery problematic for the sewage works under your house plus it is so non environmentally friendly !
Fecking up the water. In recent years I have become very aware of what I put down the sink. The amount of water on Earth is finite.
Because of the water cycle we really need to treasure our water and not pollute it.

Wait for it to cool, wipe it up with a piece of kitchen paper, chuck it in the bin (I’m talking about a small amount in the bottom of the air fryer).

I would be pouring it into a drippings bowl that I keep in the fridge and re-using it

😱 you sound like my mother. She always used to reuse the same fat in her frying pan. Anyone having a fried egg would have a bit of last week’s one with it!

I pour the cooled fat into a food bag, tie it and put it into my normal bin.

I'd go with the advice to use an old plastic bottle, or carton of some sort.

Also, it's not just the water company, your waste pipe will eventually block up, even with oil.

I usually pour it on to some kitchen roll and bin it.

When we cook anything that has fat in it we add it to any breadcrumbs or stale bread put it in the fridge and make fat balls for the birds . They love it and it’s good for the environment .

I keep old jars and takeaway tubs for this purpose.

If it won’t harden I pour it into some sort of container from the recycling bin and put it in the main bin

I recycle most glass, but keep hold of larger jam jars or mayonnaise pots and pour it into them. Then put in the bin.

Do you have a food waste bin collection? We keep the previous oil bottle and pour all leftover fat into it. When it is full it goes into the food waste collection bin. Hot fat from meat gets soaked up by paper towels, or scraped off onto paper tools when it has cooled, and binned in the general kitchen waste bin.

Don’t put it down your drain, not even with lots of hot water and washing up liquid. We had to call plumbers twice this year to clear fatbergs, despite years of carefully recycling fat. At least one of the fatbergs was actually from a property further upstream. We know this because we watched another chunk come through while we had the inspection hatch up!