Blocked drains: Don’t put festive fats down the plughole this Christmas cooks in Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes urged

Christmas cooks in Aylesbury Vale and Milton Keynes are being urged not to let turkey fat escape down the plughole this festive season.

Anglian Water staff have been busy clearing thousands of blockages from the region’s pipes this year.

The wrongful disposal of fats, oils and greases can lead to devastating flooding and environmental pollution. And more than 80 per cent of these blockages are completely avoidable through simple behaviour changes.

Anglian Water is encouraging everyone to ‘Keep It Clear’ this Christmas by disposing of their waste fats responsibly.

When you’re preparing food, cooking or cleaning, chances are you’re leaving behind grease, fat or oil. The average household puts over a litre of kitchen fat, oil and grease down the sink every year.

And when this, combined with leftover food, is washed down the sink they can become solid and cause a blockage in the pipes.

Anglian Water removes over 550 tonnes of fat, oil and grease from the sewer network every year. This happens in food service establishments but also in homes too.

Fat often slips easily down the sink as a warm liquid. But the fat quickly cools and hardens, coating sewer walls and pipes, restricting the flow of water and increasing the likelihood of blockages or flooding.

Fat also binds with other items that have been wrongfully disposed of, such as wipes, cotton buds and sanitary items, known as ‘unflushables’ – all of which should be binned instead.

Anglian Water spokesman Ben Hatfield Wright said: “This Christmas, it’s estimated more than one million turkeys will be eaten in the Anglian region.

"Each turkey produces three quarters of a pint of fat, meaning some 250 tonnes of fat – equivalent to one million blocks of butter or two blue whales – could be washed down the drains and can cause a major headache.

“Our advice to anyone cooking Christmas dinner is to let fat cool and then scrape it into your bin, or use some newspaper to scoop it up and put in your food caddy or composter. You’ll be saving yourself a lot of inconvenience as well as protecting your homes and the local environment from nasty sewage spills.”