Commercial kitchens are often equipped with grease traps that separate the grease from the wastewater and store the grease in a tank under the floor or outside the building. Grease trap maintenance and grease collection are standard services required for these kitchens and if the system is neglected, the drains and trap will eventually backflow creating a huge mess.

Grease Collection   

Many grease recycling services will remove the grease from your grease trap and haul it away. Some of these collection services will do it free in exchange for the grease, while others charge a small fee to remove it. Recycled grease from grease traps has some commercial value, so it is often profitable for the grease collection company to take it. In many cases, the service they provide is offered free to ensure they get the material. 

When the grease collection service arrives, they will remove the cover from the trap, pump out the waste material with a hose, and then clean the trap for you with low-pressure water. There is a fee for the cleaning in some cases, so check with the collection company you are considering so you don't get hit with unexpected costs that you didn't know were coming.

Some restaurants and kitchens will have the grease collection service take the material and then clean the grease trap themselves. The job is not complicated but is not pleasant. The grease can often produce a rancid odor, so it is good to use a deodorizer designed for grease traps once it is clean. 

The grease collection and trap cleaning requirements will change with the size and volume of food going through the kitchen, so you will need to check the trap from time to time, and if you notice a bad odor come from it, the trap needs to be cleaned. 

Grease Recycling

Once the grease collection service takes the grease, it can be used in various ways. One option is to refine it and remove impurities so it can be used in biodiesel fuel. This fuel is inexpensive to make and uses the oil in the grease once it is cleaned and processed.  

Alternatively, the grease can be dried and then the solid material mixed with woodchips, moss, and sawdust. There are microbes in the mix, and once it is left to compost, the mixture will become a rich fertilizer that can be spread on fields and used in greenhouses to enrich the soil. 

Composing can take time, the microbes help speed the process, and the result is a natural fertilizer free of any chemicals, so using on organic crops is very beneficial.