Today we’ll discuss retirement home grease removal. To retire is to enjoy one’s sunset years with the things that one has worked for so hard during their younger days. There are retirees who have prepared for their retirement well and are able to have vacation homes built with money from their own pockets. But there are those who just go to retirement homes to have someone take care of them as they get on in years. It’s a good thing that there are so many retirement homes in the United States so that the elderly have places to go. There are private and public retirement homes but the purpose remains the same.
Some retirement homes are much like vacation homes for the elderly people. There are some that are specially constructed to serve as residential compounds for independent
living. Here, the elderly have privacy and can have family members stay with them when they visit. But there are those that are like hospitals with rooms lined up with beds for the residents. They are usually cared for by nurses, nursing aides, and doctors in the facility to assist them with their medications and personal needs. No matter how simple or glamorous a retirement home is, the basic necessities are there—food, shelter, and medical care. Food is the most important aspect of a retirement home. Kitchens here are
busy making proper meals for the residents. Of course, they have to consider the medical conditions and dietary needs of the elderly patients. With so many retirement homes in the United States, they are considered primary contributors to the FOG (fats, oils, grease) crisis in the country.
Retirement home kitchens are where majority of the grease and solid waste materials come from. They supply food to everyone in the retirement home—residents
and workers. Plant and animal fat make up any kind of food and have a tendency to spill into the untreated wastewater produced by the retirement home. The grease ordinance formulated to mandate the owners or managers of these retirement homes to include grease traps in the main components that they should have installed. They should see to it that the traps are maintained regularly and should have permits. They are required to pump out their grease traps at least every four years. When they do have the traps pumped out, only a licensed hauler should dispose of the collected FOG.
Constant monitoring of the grease traps should be performed. This needs the participation of the in-house staff. Inspection will be done together with this so that any damage
may be reported and repaired. Vigilance in retirement home grease removal should be done to help improve the amount of FOG that mixes in with the untreated effluent. When the grease trap is not monitored and maintained, FOG will overflow. As it hitches a ride through the sewer pipes, it hardens and sticks onto the inner pipe walls. It gradually accumulates until eventually, it blocks the flow of the effluent towards the wastewater treatment plant.
Retirement home grease removal is an effort that should start in the kitchen itself. The workers in there should manually collect solid wastes and FOG. They should then collect it in a water-tight container which can be thrown out with the trash. Sinks should be fitted with strainers or fine meshes so that the bits and pieces of food and grease are kept from entering the grease trap. This significantly reduces the amount of FOG that the grease trap should deal with.
Using bacteria to clean the grease trap should also be considered. Bacteria are very efficient in digesting FOG and solid wastes. They also eliminate odors while they keep the
environment safe from contamination. With the help of bacteria, retirement home grease removal is faster and easier. They also help the retirement home owners save money on pump outs.
