
London’s fatberg on show: ‘We thought of pickling it’ - camtarn
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/feb/04/fatberg-museum-london-display-pickling-age-waste
======
KozmoNau7
And this is why you never wash cooking oil or fats down the drain. If they
don't clog your drains, they _will_ collect like this and cause huge problems
in sewers and water treatment plants.

Pour it in an empty milk carton or whatever and throw it in the household
trash. And pour a full kettle of boiling water down your kitchen sink drain
once in a while, it'll prevent fat from collecting and it'll kill any nasty
smells, too.

E: "Ninety three per cent of its complex structure was said to consist of the
element “wet wipe”"

And don't flush wet wipes! Why do people still think this is OK?

~~~
gambiting
>>And don't flush wet wipes! Why do people still think this is OK?

Because it literally says "flushable" on them?

~~~
KozmoNau7
Which is something the manufacturers continue to get away with, for absolutely
no good reason.

Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

~~~
gambiting
>>Consumers' trust in marketing is mindblowing.

On the other hand, I don't feel like consumer should have to care about this
at all. If it says flushable, it should be flushable. I'd trust relevant
agencies to enforce this, just like they already enforce "free range",
"organic" and "juice" \- at least here in UK those terms have a legal meaning
behind them and consumers can safely know they get what they pay for. If a
wipe says "flushable" but it isn't, then that should be rectified on the
regulatory level.

~~~
KozmoNau7
I think one should expect at least some level of critical thought.

Wet wipes are stored wet, for weeks, months or years. They do not decompose,
in fact they stand up very well to liquids without losing structural
integrity.

Applying just a bit of critical thought based on those observations, makes it
abundantly clear that wet wipes will not dissolve in the wet environment of a
sewer, and will in fact very easily get caught and cause a blockage.

~~~
gambiting
I've literally just looked at the packet I have at home - it says "flushable
and biodegradable". If these are not, in fact, true, then the manufacturer is
pushing some impressive bs on people.

~~~
KozmoNau7
I believe they are, and I can't believe they're getting away with it.

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omginternets
>A third of Londoners admitted they didn't know you weren't supposed to flush
fat down the sink.

So what _am_ I supposed to do with it? Put it in the trash? That's not
acceptable for the same reason that putting anything liquid in the rubbish bin
isn't acceptable. :/

~~~
gadders
Quite often you can wait for it to solidify before disposing of it.

~~~
omginternets
I have a tiny kitchen with only room for a few pots and pans, which is pretty
much the norm in London. That's not a terribly viable solution, I'm afraid.

This isn't quite as bad as saying "don't poop in the toilet; wait for it to
dry out before putting it in the trash", but it's in the same neighborhood.

~~~
philjohn
You pour it back into the container it came in when it's cool, and then you
throw it out, or take it to your local household recycling centre where they
can dispose of it for you.

~~~
phjesusthatguy3
Or keep a food tin around after emptying so you can pour the waste fat into
it. Or seal it in something reusable and use it as the fat for your next
fryjob.

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rtb
Does anyone know why the fat doesn't get broken down by bacteria; why doesn't
it just rot away?

~~~
Reason077
London's water supply is pretty heavily chlorinated. Wouldn't that surpress
bacterial activity?

~~~
mseebach
Is it really though? I've lived three places in London and made sourdoughs
with tap water in all with no trouble. If it can't kill nacent yeast cultures,
I wouldn't expect it to have many chances against sewer bacteria.

~~~
folknor
TLDR: It's not as simple as "apply bleach - things die."

Yeast and bacteria are not the same thing. Practically, bleach doesn't kill
yeast - if you try to kill fungus in your shower or on a wall with bleach,
what that does is make it white. Which to us is a strong indication that it's
dead, but it probably isn't.

To clean fungus from your shower, for example, you need to mix vinegar and
fresh bleach with cold water (of which the fumes can actually kill you as
well) and use the solution properly, or use an industrial cleaning agent.

Of course, someone who bleaches their shower will probably also wash it after
(you should wash it _first_ before applying bleach), which might simply
_physically remove_ most of the fungus from the surface. But depending on the
solution you use, the fungus won't actually die.

Note that the above is mostly true in household use of bleach, and not in
correct use. Bleach _does_ kill most fungus if used correctly, but essentially
noone does. Hot water significantly reduces the effectiveness of bleach, and
so does using _more_ than you should, and also it loses effectiveness rapidly
when it comes in contact with unclean surfaces, fat/organic material (which
there is plenty of on your wall), etc, and also doesn't have a long shelf-life
(20% effectiveness lost yearly if stored properly). It also needs 10-30
minutes of contact time, compared to some prepared solutions that are 90%
effective in a few seconds, and 95% effective after 10 seconds.

~~~
michaelt

      you need to mix vinegar and fresh bleach
      with cold water (of which the fumes can
      actually kill you as well)
    

All the results I can find on Google for "bleach vinegar" say "Do not do this,
chlorine gas is poison" \- where can I learn more about how to do it properly,
and why it works?

~~~
folknor
I _believe_ it was Charlie Talley on this podcast:
[http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/9/0/390da96899933961/bbr03-29-07...](http://hwcdn.libsyn.com/p/3/9/0/390da96899933961/bbr03-29-07.mp3?c_id=1452161&expiration=1517859027&hwt=a5f7704d3178c89acade9ab7473b9bc4)

Essentially, you use the vinegar to adjust the pH of the water to the correct
level - 8.0 - to get the right effect from the bleach (chlorine). Again, I
have to stress what I said in my first post, that this _can be deadly for you_
if you don't use it correctly.

[http://podbay.fm/show/75092679/e/1175200200](http://podbay.fm/show/75092679/e/1175200200)
might be a better link, I'm not sure. Interview starts around 9:30.

Charlie is the inventor of Star San, a sanitizing solution used in breweries
and by homebrewers. Which should make you skeptical, but don't be. He's
essentially an expert who made a fantastic product, and only wants to help. In
the podcast he outlines how to use normal household products as replacements
for his products.

I haven't listened to it since 2012 or so, so if I am mistaken about the
source, please let me know and I'll find the correct source of the information
in my original post.

------
jwilk
> _Flushers report finds of motorbikes, prams, coins, phones and jewellery –
> and once a live hand grenade._

OK, I understand coins, phones, jewellery and even hand grenades. But how do
you flush a motorbike or a pram? :-O

~~~
gambiting
I imagine people open the sewer cover on the street and push stuff in.

~~~
masklinn
Or dump them in creeks and open channels which may drain through combined
sewer systems. It's common to have signs posted around storm drain systems
telling people not to dump waste in there, which obviously means people _do_
dump waste in there.

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snarfy
A plumber I know once told me he could tell the ethnicity of the family that
lived in a home by the type and color of grease clogging the drain.

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cobbzilla
I wish they could somehow preserve it more perfectly. Could they encase the
thing in a cube of acrylic? Maybe the heat of the liquid acrylic would damage
it?

The fatberg should be preserved as a monument to the staggeringly wasteful
nature of our current culture. Then keep it on exhibit even after we reach a
sustainable future, to remind people what things were like before we started
acting more responsibly towards our planet.

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brango
I like to think that in some small way, I helped make this piece of art :-)

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baxtr
This is truly disgusting. (Sorry.)

