When maintained properly, grease traps prevent your kitchen grease and food waste materials from entering the city sewer system.  Grease is a leading cause of sanitary sewer overflows, since it clogs sanitary sewer lines and ultimately causes line blockages.  The result is all too frequent discharges of untreated wastewater into streets, homes and commercial enterprises.  Ultimately these problematic wastestreams enter our local waterways, where they cause further cleanup costs and restrict recreation, tourism and commerce. Your traps must be regularly emptied and periodically cleaned to prevent costly and dirty back-ups or over-flows.

1. Your kitchen’s complete plumbing system, including sinks, dishwashers, floor-drains and mop-sinks, drains into the grease trap or grease interceptor system.
   
2. Wastewater flows into either an interior or exterior (usually in-ground) grease trap system.  A baffle separates the inlet and outlet of the trap, keeping grease in. 
   
3. Grease floats to the top of the grease trap, while solids settle on the bottom. The trap or interceptor must be vacuum pumped regularly by a skilled service provider to remove the entire contents of the trap.
   
4. Clean water then continues to flow into your sewer or septic system.