
Fatbergs to fuel: London's blockage-busting battle in the sewers - ctrlp
http://www.cbc.ca/news/thenational/fatberg-london-sewer-renewable-energy-1.4400375
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fishcolorbrick
In Portland, we just removed 2.4 million pounds of grease from our sewer
system.

[http://www.kptv.com/story/36854903/crews-removed-
nearly-24-m...](http://www.kptv.com/story/36854903/crews-removed-
nearly-24-million-pounds-of-grease-from-portland-sewer-lines)

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mschuster91
How is the sewage re-routed, anyway? I mean, if a core sewer gets clogged for
9 weeks, it's not like with cars where you can simply direct them to a
parallel street?

Or do the workers have to blast the fatbergs while, basically, also standing
in literal swimming turds around their legs?

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s_dev
Yes to the second sentence. They have hazmat suits and a lot of protection.

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BadassFractal
Never complaining about my job again.

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jayess
> The company has been working with restaurants that cook with a lot of grease
> to remind them to collect it and throw it out, rather than dumping it down
> the drain. It has also instituted a campaign — "Bin it, don't block it" —
> asking Londoners to help prevent fatbergs.

Is there no requirement that restaurants have grease traps?

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civilian
Laws don't always motivate action. It seems fine to use a multi-pronged
strategy.

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ams6110
It's also probably hard to enforce unless they catch them in the act.

I don't understand why restaurants are just throwing the grease away though.
Companies will buy it, pick it up, and use it to make soap or biodiesel or
other products they can sell.

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mschuster91
> I don't understand why restaurants are just throwing the grease away though

Space, for one reason. The smaller the restaurant, the lower the amount of
space that can be dedicated to a grease trap and a storage tank. In other
places, the age of the building (or its construction, e.g. when it's without a
cellar!) might make constructing one impossible. Or the restaurant might be in
a tiny old street that is not reachable by a truck.

