Grease Trap Pumping Services

B&P Environmental services interior and exterior grease traps of all sizes, from 5 gallons to 20,000 gallons or more. With multiple disposal locations and a fleet capacity in excess of 30,000 gallons, we do not turn down any job for being too small or too large. Any size, location, and level of difficulty can be handled by B&P Environmental. We offer 24/7 emergency services, so any grease trap can be serviced at any hour to suit our customer needs and schedules. B&P Environmental offers grease trap pumping services for restaurant chains, malls, plazas, and more across the Maryland, DC, Virginia, Delaware, and Pennsylvania area.

What Is A Grease Trap?

Fats, Oils, and Greases (FOGs) are a major problem for municipalities, property owners, and restaurants alike. FOGs are washed down the drain and then congeal and collect on the inside of the pipes. Over time, this will lead to flow restrictions and eventually result in major backups. A grease trap, or a grease interceptor, is a plumbing device that intercepts and capture FOGs and food sludge from wastewater before it gets into the sewer system. This collected grease is now no longer going to back up sewer systems – but now it is your responsibility to remove the accumulated FOGs and food sludge.

diagram of grease trap pumping

What Can I Do To Minimize The Build-Up In My Grease Trap?

It all starts with good kitchen management and practices. Common steps to take to avoid problems include:

  • Minimizing food waste going into the drains. Food waste should go into the trash can, not into the sink.
  • Wipe down greasy pots and pans with a paper towel before washing them.
  • Install strainers in sinks to capture any remaining food waste. Properly dispose of any food waste captured by the strainers into a trash can.
  • Never pour used fryer oil or place cooking griddle waste into the sink.
  • Dispose of used fryer oil into a grease container provided by B&P Environmental for recycling.

How Often Should A Grease Trap Be Cleaned?

Grease traps can vary wildly in usage, size, design, and location. All these factors will determine how often a grease trap should be cleaned. To make it simple, you want to clean a grease trap when it is one quarter ‘full’ at a minimum – that means the food sludge on the bottom and the FOGs on the top do not exceed one-quarter of the volume of the grease trap. However, many grease traps should be cleaned much more often than the simple one-quarter rule would dictate. For example, if you look at a grease trap that is 1,500 gallons, one quarter would be 375 gallons of FOGs, which is way too much! Oftentimes, the grease will be so hard by this time that you can stack bricks on top of it!

We recommend our customers have their grease trap pumping services happen every one to three months. The local regulatory authorities will often dictate the cleaning frequency of your grease trap.

a trap ready for grease trap pumping
worker performing grease trap pumping

What Happens If I Do Not Clean My Grease Trap?

Failure to maintain your grease trap will eventually lead to a number of issues that can be costly to rectify. The trap will become less effective, allowing the FOGs to pass through the system and accumulate in the pipes. In such situations, B&P Environmental can be contracted to hydro jet the pipes, leaving the lines as clean as new.

The corrosive nature of the grease trap contents can also degrade the trap. Steel traps will corrode from the inside, and the corrosive liquid contents can degrade the crystalline structure of concrete, breaking concrete baffles, or seriously damaging the load-bearing structure of the trap, leading to serious safety concerns and potentially a total collapse of the grease trap. A large accumulation of grease trap FOGs can also cause a massive blockage. A sink may not drain, or the contents of the trap may overflow inside or outside of the building, causing an extensive mess that requires a specialized, costly emergency cleanup.

In many cases, the backup manifests itself as a total blockage of the sanitary plumbing system, causing all restrooms, sinks, and floor drains to back up. This results in potentially costly property damage, as well as regulatory fines from governmental environmental and regulatory institutions.

Contact B&P Environmental for Grease Trap Pumping Services

With B&P Environmental, one call does it all. In addition to grease trap pumping services, we offer a variety of other sewer and drain cleaning services, such as:

Contact B&P Environmental today at 833.522.0198 and we will help you identify your needs and put together a comprehensive plan to maintain your grease trap with our grease trap pumping services, before repairs or total replacement is needed!