• sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          24
          ·
          5 months ago

          You know the grease you see on the range hood or ceilings of your kitchen/restaurants above the cooktop/stove?

          Same thing would happen in your chimney, but combined with wood fire ash.

          • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            But the oil is being burnt?

            Is there something from the combustion process that causes issues?

            Or are you saying some won’t immediately combust and would go up the chimney?

            Would be interesting to see research into this.

            • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              23
              ·
              5 months ago

              Nothing burns cleanly in a fireplace, even gas ones except for ventless ones.

              Anything you burn in a fireplace like wood, oil, fat etc. will produce organic compounds that the fire is unable to break down into non-flammable substances because it does not burn hot enough.

              A wood fireplace accumulates creosote, which can build until it is capable of igniting and cause a chimney fire. Oil and fat combust very poorly and will coat the flue with material that is easier to ignite than creosote. This ends up being a hazard worse than just wood byproducts because they can ignite and then set the creosote burning.

            • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              5 months ago

              Complete combustion of hydrocarbons is difficult and usually requires specialized equipment for that hydrocarbon. A fireplace is probably for wood (I assume nobody here is throwing cooking oil into a gas fireplace), but it’s not even good at that. Cooking oil will spatter and polymerize

        • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          French Fry grease will coat your lungs. No reason to be subjecting yourself to that smell if not actively consuming french-fries. I’ve spent enough time frying fast-food and donuts that there’s only the two ways that smell isn’t making me puke: actively cooking or eating. Otherwise, I’m not stepping foot in your fry-scented cancer den.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      88
      ·
      5 months ago

      Take it to the recycling center. Even just tossing it into the trash is better than pouring it down the drain. If you toss it in the trash it will just get incinerated. If you pour it down the drain it can clog the sewage system.

      • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        70
        ·
        5 months ago

        “it will just get incinerated”

        Look at you, living in a country where they actually do something with trash instead of just accumulating it in a huge field

        • Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          5 months ago

          Do plastics go in the landfill too? Or is it somehow separated so that only stuff that decays in years rather than centuries goes there?

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            10
            ·
            5 months ago

            The regular trash doesn’t get separated, it’s just dumped. There’s also almost no restrictions on what can go in there, our trash cans are massive, and we have to pay for recycling, so many people just don’t bother (and a second trash can is not much more than a recycling bin).

            We do have a recycling service that accepts most plastics (#1-#7), and they claim to recycle it, but they have pretty strict standards (needs to be clean, need to separate caps from bottles/jugs, etc), so I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it just ends up at the landfill anyway. Our area is a “single sort” facility, meaning people just dump everything into one bin and they sort it on their end. This means workers are even more likely to just throw stuff out that isn’t easily identifiable as recyclable.

            One big issue is that they don’t accept glass, so to recycle glass, you need to take it somewhere special. I’m pretty obsessive about recycling, so I go out of my way to recycle everything I can (I have a bag of dead batteries in the garage, I make regular trips to recycle glass, etc), but I highly doubt most people bother. In fact, I have a few neighbors with 2 garbage cans and no recycling can.

            • Damage@feddit.it
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              6
              ·
              edit-2
              5 months ago

              Wow weird. May I ask where that is? Not recycling glass sounds WILD to me, it’s one of the most common recyclables, even decades ago when plastic recycling was uncommon, glass “dumpsters” where everywhere.

              Being forced to separate caps from bottles of very exotic as well, considering the EU just introduced a regulation that forces manufacturers to make caps that stay on the bottle even when opened.

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                5
                ·
                5 months ago

                Utah, USA.

                We do have a few drop-off bins, but I have to drive to each of them. The going explanation is that, since we do sorting at the facility, it’s not worth exposing workers to broken glass, which is inevitable when mixing all recyclables into one garbage truck. So people have two options: drive to a drop-off location (each a few miles away and not on the way to anything) or just toss it in the trash. So, most people just toss it in the trash.

                Being forced to separate caps from bottles of very exotic as well

                The plastic in the caps is different from the plastic in the bottles and cannot be recycled together. I guess it’s not worth the time for them to separate at the plant (plastic recycling isn’t profitable as it is), so they put that responsibility onto trash customers (in other words, they want an excuse to just toss bottles w/ caps still on them).

                I’m talking about these bottle caps btw. They’re everywhere here (milk jugs, soda, bigger ones for pasta sauce, etc).

                I’m guessing more urban areas have better recycling policies since they don’t have massive landfills available for dumping.

                • Damage@feddit.it
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  5 months ago

                  Here we have door-to-door pick up now, which replaced dumpsters as a way to encourage recycling: you have limited pick-ups for unsorted trash, the bin has a transponder and a barcode, if you go over the limit you pay extra (albeit very little), while recyclables have unlimited pick-ups; but if they catch you putting normal trash in the recyclables they can fine you.

                  For door to door we sort as follows:

                  • bags: plastic, cans and cartons (such as milk)
                  • paper bin: cardboard and paper, but only if clean (no pizza boxes!)
                  • compost bin: food leftovers and such, as well as used paper tissues

                  Then we have dumpsters for glass and dumpsters for gardening refuse, such as wood, leaves, cut grass. Now we have one for cooking oil as well.

                  For batteries there are usually bins near some stores or at workplaces.

                  Everything else you have to take to the recycling center, say metal, building materials, furniture… Usually each community has one, when I lived in the country side, my 3000-people village had its own. For furniture in some places you can arrange a curbside pick-up.

                  All of this is the same for urban and rural areas, though there are small differences between regions as the recycling facilities can be different. For example in some places milk cartons go in the paper bin instead of the plastic one. Of course rural in my area is probably way less rural than most of Utah.

                  As for caps, yeah, those are now attached to the bottle.. I guess the recycling facility has a way to separate and sort them.

              • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                5 months ago

                Almost guaranteed to be U.S.A. as it sounds almost identical to my area except we have even fewer options. Here it all goes to the landfill, you can pay for recycling cans and pickup on recycling day but it gets contaminated by people putting trash in the recycling nearly every time so it all just goes to landfill and the local government just doesn’t care

            • bassomitron@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              5 months ago

              Random question, where do you take old gasoline? Will auto part stores take a jug of old motor oil and gasoline that’s been mixed? I guess I should probably just call and ask a local store after I’m done shitting on company time.

              • Omgpwnies@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                5 months ago

                Where I live, it goes to the dump, they have a space dedicated to hazardous liquids/containers. However, you have to leave the whole container there, there’s no spot to dump it

                • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  5 months ago

                  Same.

                  For separated motor oil (e.g. oil changes), it can go to my local auto parts store, but gasoline and most other car fluids (e.g. coolant, transmission fluid, etc) goes to the dump as hazardous waste. My area does an event once or twice each year to collect all of those hazardous materials, so it’s worth checking that out as well, since it can be way more convenient than waiting in a line at the dump.

        • tyler@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          The landfill stuff doesn’t eventually turn into dirt. They purposefully make sure that it’s wrapped in plastic in such a way that it never decomposes. Landfills are terrible.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            They do it to protect the water table from things like battery acid. But a good chunk of it will become dirt, because there’s enough organic matter in mixed trash to decompose. It’ll just take a really long time because of the mix of plastic and whatnot.

            • tyler@programming.dev
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              WM at least has rules that every load of trash must be in individual bags, and they must be tied. So you’re not getting that mix you’re talking about. Their goal (every landfill) is to make sure that nothing breaks down as it costs more to deal with (like leachate and methane).

              • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                Ours doesn’t have those rules, and I and my neighbors put all kinds of crap in there: tree branches, lawn clippings, rocks, disassembled furniture, rotten food. If it fits, it goes in. And our bins are pretty big, so a lot goes in there. The main reasons to bag are to prevent the bin from getting too stinky and to keep stuff from blowing out if the wind flips the lid. AFAICT, there’s no policy about what goes in the bin, other than hazardous materials like batteries (which they plan for because a lot of people toss those in as well).

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      5 months ago

      There are ways to make it harden for bin disposal, but if I’m feeling cheeky I just put used oil back in the plastic jug once it’s cooled down and bin that

    • Damage@feddit.it
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      Take it to the recycling center? Here they recently introduced a few oil dumpsters as well

    • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      5 months ago

      My city actually has us pouring our oil in the compost bins. But in ye olde days, my parents would collect all the oil in the big yogurt containers/milk jugs and then throw it in the trash.

          • stom@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            I was referring to seed-based oils.

            It should go without saying that motor oil is also inappropriate, yes

            • sigmaklimgrindset@sopuli.xyz
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              5 months ago

              I should have specified: my municipality lets us throw any cooking oil out into our compost, and we have special containers in our compost bins specifically for cooking oils. So I’m assuming they get rid of it some way that isn’t actually in the compost.

              • stom@lemmy.dbzer0.com
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 months ago

                Ah I thought you meant for composting at home. My Mum only ever let us put vegetable oil in the compost, and even then only small amounts.

    • Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      14
      ·
      5 months ago

      If small amounts of oil that hardens when at room temp, like bacon fat. Throw it in a tin can to cool, garbage when the can fills. Oil that doesn’t harden, personally I put a bunch of dish soap into the oily pan to absorb the oil and wash it down the sink. Not sure if the dish soap does enough but seems safe to me.

      If its a large amount, like for deep frying. Local recycling might take it. I know curbside pickup will take used motor oil for me, so I imagine they’d take fryer oil too.

        • Itsamelemmy@lemmy.zip
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          5 months ago

          I don’t do it with lots of oil. I mentioned putting bacon fat in a tin can, so we’re talking less than you’d get cooking bacon. See my other reply about semantics of absorb. For small amounts, the oil will emulsify with the soap. Which then can be rinsed away with water. This is how it makes your dishes clean, I’m sure it works the same down the drain.

          • Contentedness@lemmy.nz
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            I’m not sure why you’re getting so many downvotes, your system seems reasonable to me!

      • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        ·
        5 months ago

        Everyone else is upset about absorbing the oil. I’m way more upset that you’re throwing out perfectly good bacon grease that can be used in any number of dishes.

          • TexasDrunk@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            5 months ago

            Tortillas are the number one thing! But if you don’t need new tortillas (I can’t imagine why but some folks don’t have tortillas with nearly every meal, or so I’ve heard) it’s also great for sauteing pretty much anything.

      • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        14
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        5 months ago

        put a bunch of dish soap into the oily pan to absorb the oil

        all science people are in pain right now

          • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            5 months ago

            No, it’s not.

            Absorption /= emulsification. Nor does it equal adsorption.

            They’re different, and have different properties.

            An emulsification can be broken by agitation or introduction of another substance.

            Soap and water do not absorb oil.

          • Wild_Mastic@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            If you hit a rock with an hammer and that rock becomes dust indistinguishable from the dirt on the floor, the hammer did not absorb the rock

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        5 months ago
        1. bacon fat isn’t oil, it’s fat
        2. keep the bacon fat for cooking later, it’s amazing - just cover the tin and stick in in the fridge, it keeps really well
        3. if it’s a little bit of oil, first wipe with a paper towel, then wash with soap
        4. if it’s a lot of oil, I double-bag w/ plastic grocery bags and throw in the garbage; it’ll break down at the landfill

        I wish our recycling took oil, but I’m not convinced they even recycle the things they do take. It’s definitely worth checking though.

  • GJdan@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    48
    arrow-down
    5
    ·
    5 months ago

    What on earth are you all cooking to have so much oil left over that you can pour it into anything?

    • Jay@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      28
      ·
      5 months ago

      For me it’s mostly the deep fryer. When I change the oil it takes about 4 1/2 liters to refill.

      • GJdan@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        5 months ago

        That makes sense, I didn’t imagine that many people bother deep frying at home, but I guess I’m wrong :D

        But in this case people are describing adding a little oil to a bottle at a time where with deep frying you could fill a bottle every time I think.

      • Whelks_chance@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        5 months ago

        My parents could keep that going for a good long time by filtering it through a few layers of kitchen paper, it got rid of a lot of the burnt stuff, came out quite clear each time.

      • Bizzle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        I just got a deep fryer literally two days ago how often should I change the oil?

        • Jay@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          They say around around 10 uses or a max of three months, depending on how often you use it and what you’re frying.

          For me personally I tend to stretch it a bit further… the main thing is that it isn’t rancid or starting to get too dark.

        • ikidd@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          5 months ago

          Drain it through a filter and refrigerate it if you aren’t using it constantly. It’ll go rancid pretty quick.

    • psud@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      5 months ago

      I don’t call it oil since it’s solid at room temperature, but if you fry meat you’ll liberate fat (dripping)

        • AWildMimicAppears@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          That depends on the dish - a Wiener Schnitzel for example should be able to move freely in the oil (because it should be kept moving while frying), or the breading will be pretty underwhelming. Same goes for most stuff with breading. I always try to be very conservative in my cooking oil usage, but in those cases it’s just not an option.

          • MachineFab812@discuss.tchncs.de
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 months ago

            A lot of people do, actually. Seasoning them right for them to come out more “french fry” than “dried potato” is more involved than a lot of people might like, but I personally don’t do it because I’m being picky about the flavor. I don’t own a deep-frier and salted-dried-potatoes are good enough with a lot of entrees.

    • riodoro1@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      5 months ago

      Yeah, like what the fuck. People here really think that you can’t fry with just enough oil.

      • filcuk@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        5 months ago

        Well, not normally, but for example crispy breaded anything should be dunked in oil at least half way.

  • Pringles@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    39
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    5 months ago

    I did that once, I was staying at a family as an exchange student and immediately forced to help with chores. Now, they ran a large creche from that house so there were a lot of different chores and being on dishes could mean slaving away in the kitchen for well over an hour.

    Anyway, I didn’t know shit about how to properly dispose of oil and in the first or second week poured a large pan of oil down the drain. It ended up ruining some stuff and they had a hefty repair bill. I may be cynical, but I never gave a damn about it as they were basically using me as free labor anyway. Helping with household chores = ok. Helping clean up the gigantic daily mess of those shitty kids in your shitty creche = not ok

  • I'm back on my BS 🤪@lemmy.autism.place
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    I keep a container for used cooking oil along with old motor oil. Whenever it starts getting full, I take it to the local auto parts store for recycling.

    Do not take cooking oil to an Advanced Auto Parts for recycling. They do not accept that. If you’d like other options, a quick internet search will let you know what you can doodoo brown 🕺

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      5 months ago

      Mixed? Motor oil should be recycled at the auto parts store, but different people people used vegetable oil. Worse case, you could throw out the veg oil. It will biodegrade in the landfill better then most of the stuff that ends up there

  • Etterra@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    We had a grease can under the sink when I wasgrowing up. My fiancee and I use an old jar. I can’t believe people didn’t know better. They probably think it’s fine to dump car fluids in the storm drain too. Idiots.

    • LinusSexTips@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 months ago

      Plenty of auto shops in my area will take car oils free of charge. Same with the tip, bottle it up and drop it off on the next tip run.

      • waz@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        The shop I worked in, and I assume most other shops in a cold climate, had a waste oil furnace. We’d save oil all summer, and it would keep the shop warm all winter.

  • The Assman@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    Idc if this is dumb, I pour it in a bucket and when it’s full I dig a hole in the back yard and pour the oil in there and bury it. I do this 1-2 times a year.

    • Cordyceps @sopuli.xyz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      Honestly not the worst idea now I think about it. I have been using the paper towel soak method, but this could actually be less wasteful and easier on the organic composter. Thanks for the tip!

      Edit: Ok so I dug into this a bit more (no pun intended), and seems its not the best idea due to the oil potentially seeping into groundwater.

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    I have a small bucket filled with sawdust that I use to store used cooking oil. Bucket stays in the garage as it’ll eventually go rancid. When it does, it gets thrown into the trash. The resulting mess is still greasy, but not runny. The key here is that soaking it this way limits the mess that can happen if it’s knocked over; sawdust is what you use to clean an oil spill anyway.

    Wood-based cat litter would also work for this. It’s just compressed sawdust pellets1.

    1 - very likely made in the same fashion as pellet stove fuel, so that might work too.

  • Noobnarski@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    16
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    5 months ago

    If you have a metal bowl that you no longer need, you can put a roll of toilet paper in there and then douse the whole thing in cooling oil.

    Once ignited you will have a stinky lamp, so I would only recommend doing this outside.

    • FiskFisk33@startrek.website
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      5 months ago

      this kindof, but more serious.

      Unless we’re talking deep frying, the cooking fat makes for a perfect base for a sauce. With some flour and some stock you have the beginnings of something beautiful, such a waste just throwing it away.

  • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    5 months ago

    I’ll usually wipe the oil with some paper so I can throw it on the trash. Many moons ago, my family used to collect the oil to make soap at home. Last time I recall seeing that was some 30-ish years ago.

    • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      5 months ago

      I am sure someone will have some insight into why this is a bad solution.

      😂 Assuming you live in a city with sewer, idk how detrimental it would be…never really thought about it. And sewer stuff, it’s so toxic, and there are facilities dedicated to dealing with it.

      I live out in the country, with a septic system. This septic system is a living organism of sorts; it contains bacteria & other life that helps to break down my shit, piss, etc. Idk how good introducing a bunch of this soap into the septic tank would be. Maybe it’s harmless… Or maybe it’ll kill all the buggies.

      I do know that if you feel your septic tank is a little ‘sluggish’, lacking in activity, you flush some raw chicken skin down your toilet & that’s supposed to help. 🙂

      • ikidd@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        5 months ago

        Oils in a septic tank are a poor idea. It floats, so it never gets pumped out as effluent, and it builds up in the tank. When you get the tank pumped, it should go away then as the pumper guy will usually stir it up enough to get all the oils and solids, but in the meantime it’s there interfering with the bugs.

      • DSTGU@sopuli.xyz
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        5 months ago

        I believe oil argument has little to do with sewers/septic tanks. It s just that oil may clog your pipes

        • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Right I understand. But OP was saying someone will come along talking about unintended consequences, possibly very negative ones. I…fail to see any real problem. But I’m also not a plumber. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯