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?

I do this - chill it so it's a solid lump then you can just chuck it in the bin.
People putting oils and fats down drains is why there are vast 'fatbergs'.

My DH pours the fat from our burgers in the air fryer into an old empty yoghurt pot, lets it solidify then throws it in the bin. Easy as pie 😁

We collect waste fat in a plastic pot with a well-fitting watertight lid - some brands of houmous use good ones. It takes a good while to fill. Then we wrap the pot in an old plastic bread bag as double containment, and hopefully to help prevent the lid being dislodged. This goes in the general waste bin, which in our area is incinerated in an energy-from-waste plant. I'd imagine it releases plenty of energy when it goes up.

The waste here will be a mix of solid and liquid and room temperature. Yes, we could possibly cool the fats that will solidify and dispose of them separately, but at this time of year they'd surely melt again in the wheelie bin or food waste caddy sitting out in the sun, making a horrible mess.

A downside of this is that one plastic pot and one soft plastic bag are not recycled, but I think this is a lesser evil than blocking the sewers with fat.

If its only a few tablespoons, I just leave it to cool then tip it straight in the bin.

On the compost heap.

I just collect it in an old jam jar and bin the jar when it is full

I put a couple of sheets of kitchen roll into the fat or oil to soak it up, when cool put the sheets in a plastic bag (the sort of thin bag you for supermarket veggies), knot and put in the general waste bin.

Pour into small bowl, let solidify, bin.

pour into container, bin.

pour into foil, scrunch close, bin.

pour into freezer bag, bin.

poir into freezer bag, freeze to solidify if it’s runny fat, bin.

how is this hard?

If you use kitchen paper/paper towel in the kitchen, keep the used pieces and pour the oil over these.
I often have several dirty scrunch up paper towel in the bin, so once any oil/fats have cooled I pour it slowly over these in the bin.

If you have a baby in the house, I often pour oil/fats into a used nappy (obviously just a wet one that wasn’t full).

we have a deep fat fryer and when we clean the oil out we put the liquid into the old bottle and leave it out with the food waste bin. Any small amounts of liquid fat goes into the bag in the food waste bin.

I’m a peasant and when the cooking tray for the chicken is empty and cooked down I pour all the fat, jelly bits and meat scrapings into a remakin or similar. Out in fridge overnight so top solidifies - scrape that off and put in an airtight pot in fridge for week or so and use as chicken dripping. Yum. I then either use the leftover jellyfied part as a stock pot when in next cooking and need chicken stock or freeze until I do.

If making a chicken risotto and I don’t have proper chicken stock then the dripping part is amazing in lieu of oil for frying onions etc and the stock pot part I dissolve in hot water and ladle in. Tastes amazing

Pour into a mug and then, when solid, scrape into a bin.

If it’s not a large amount just pour it straight into the bin.

we have a glass jar under the sink and pour whatever liquid fat we have into that then bin it when it’s full.

Animal Fat that goes solid when cold: pour in a small bowl, scrape out onto cardboard and dispose in bin

Fat that stays liquid: YES we do keep a small spare plastic bottle, decant into this, then take to tip when full

Line a cereal bowl or mug with a square of foil, if there’s a lot of oil add a sheet of kitchen towel, pour oil / liquid fat in, when cooled scrunch into a secure parcel and freeze until black bin day, when it’s the last thing added to the kitchen bin before I tie up the bin bag to put out in the black bin.

If it’s liquid that will turn sold (eg cooking sausages under the grill/ draining fat off minced beef) I use a spoon and put it into an old tin to cool down and then once cool scoop it into the bin and wash the tin to recycle . If it’s vegetable oil I have used in the frying pan I tend to soak it up with kitchen paper when cooled down or if my bin is already about 3/4 full and looks like it has enough stuff in there to absorb it I will just pour it into the bin (cold oil obviously not hot).

I rarely get any liquid oil to dispose of but if put it into an empty takeaway carton and put in the bin.