Grease Trap Cleaning 2020 🛢️ – Grease Trap Services FAQs

Grease trap cleaning: If you are opening (or of course already operate) a cafe, restaurant or business handling a lot of food and cooking, you will almost certainly need to arrange cleaning of your grease trap. A grease trap (also known as a grease interceptor, a grease converter or a grease recovery device) prevents large amounts of grease or solids from entering the wastewater disposal system. A really good overview can be found on Wikipedia.

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>Download Now: Free PDF Business Owners Guide To Grease Trap Cleaning Services

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Table of contents for this article include: 

I. Grease Trap Cleaning Intro
II. Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning Services
III. Australia grease trap cleaning 
IV. Emergency grease trap cleaning
V. Restaurant grease trap cleaning services 
VI. Grease Trap Companies 
VII. Grease Trap Interceptor Sizing 
VIII. Grease Trap Waste 

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Grease Trap Cleaning Intro

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We previously published an introduction article to get your grease trap service cleaned cheaply and reliably by Waster. In this part of the section or blog, we seek to answer some common questions we hear from customers as there are many common misconceptions. After all, a grease trap is not something any of us want to spend much time thinking about!

How often do I need to have grease trap cleaning done?

Depending on your business type – you may need to have your grease trap serviced between 6 and 2 times a year. The relevant water authorities in your region mandate the frequency. See the info page at Sydney Water (covering metro Sydney) for coverage of this.

The schedule is decided by these authorities so you do not need to shop around for varying info.

If you have a 1500 or say 3000-litre trap, that amount will be collected when the trap is cleaned (i.e., a service will not clean a proportion of the grease trap). The water will be turned off and all the liquid in the trap will be pumped. The bottom and sides will then be scraped down and the water let refill the trap.

What details do I need?

To arrange a service – a Waster customer service agent will contact you after your booking and if you have the following info it will expedite the process:

A. Your business name/address

B. At least one of the following – Existing permit or consent number; Water meter number; Water Account number; Grease trap barcode.

Do not worry; Waster will walk you through this process.

What does grease trap cleaning cost?

You can book grease trap cleaning in our online waste shop. You can book reliable grease trap servicing for your business in most metro regions across Australia including Canberra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, the Central Coast (NSW), grease trap Sydney, Wollongong, Darwin, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston, Devenport, Burnie and last but not least Perth.

Waster offers grease trap servicing on a simple pricing model – servicing is on a cent per litre basis. For example, in Sydney grease trap price servicing is performed at $0.20 per litre plus GST. Minimum volumes of 1000 litres apply for this pricing (contact us if your grease trap volume is smaller than this). There are no additional charges.

Note: Pricing assumes grease trap is accessible by Tanker within 15m off Pitt or pump out point and involves one personnel member to perform service. More complex services will require specific pricing.

How can I book a grease pit service?

Simply book online through our online shop – a Waster customer service agent will contact you within 24 hours to complete the necessary paperwork (as above) and liaise with the relevant water authorities to arrange your service date and ongoing schedule.

Can it be serviced too often?

Grease trap servicing is heavily regulated by the water authorities in each metro region. For example, the Sydney metro region is covered by Sydney Water Wastesafe programme. The authorities set the collection frequency and ensure that only licensed agents can perform the servicing. All Waster services are fully licensed and qualified in line with all relevant legislation.

This legislation means that your service schedule is set by regulatory authorities. Waster will only deliver services in accordance with this schedule.

If you are seeking an emergency grease trap service – see here.

Takeaway

Through Waster you can be certain that you will meet regulatory requirements and have a reliable, low-cost servicing of your grease trap. As we will only perform services as scheduled by the relevant water authorities and on our 30-day contracts you are never locked into an agreement that does not suit you, you can be stress-free.

Check out our services online:

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Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning Services

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Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning Services: we run through in this part of the section today how easy it is for our customers to arrange low cost/cheap grease trap price services for their business and extremely reliable as well as high-quality servicing of your grease trap in all metro regions across Australia.

We work with 1000s of small and medium Australian businesses – in all metro regions – across all sectors. For commercial grease trap cleaning services, we work with businesses in the following sectors:

• cafes
• restaurants
• food production
• petrol stations (triple interceptors)
• any other business such as property management who has a grease trap on site.

A little bit about how Waster can help with your grease trap cleaning services

Waster provides lots of waste and recycling services. In fact, we provide all commercial waste services available in Australia.

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You can easily book all your business services through our online portal – with the confidence of our flexible 30 day agreements.

Whether it is general waste bin hire, cardboard recycling or commercial grease trap cleaning services – you can easily arrange them online. By arranging all your services through Waster – you can benefit from our bundled pricing discounts – and also have only one invoice to pay each month – saving you time and hassle.

Book your Commercial Grease Trap Cleaning Services online today

Through our online booking portal, you can easily arrange servicing of your grease trap cleaning in regions including Canberra, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Newcastle, Sydney, Wollongong, Darwin, Adelaide, Perth and Tasmania.

Simply go online to the check pricing and book your required service.

With our commercial grease trap cleaning services, when a small customer signs up for regularly scheduled cleaning, we follow the process as below.

• We will check with the local water authority as to the required cleaning schedule.
• We will check on access conditions for the grease trap. Grease trap locations can be in a number of commonplaces. The most common location is outside at the back of the business location. However – grease traps can also be located inside buildings – such as in underground car-parks and even in some instances – in the kitchen area.
• We will then check if keys or padlocks etc are required for access and provide these to the truck driver.
• On the scheduled service day – the driver will go to the site and perform the commercial grease trap cleaning services. This service will involve opening the grease trap and pumping out all the liquid and grease in the pit. The technician will then scrape down the sides and bottom of the trap – and remove any excess grease.
• If appropriate, the driver will then scan the barcode or update the relevant water authority that the service has been performed as scheduled.

How is our grease trap price displayed in the online Waste Management shop?

Pricing of the grease trap service is given as a comprehensive collection and disposal price per litre collected (pricing is provided in cents per litre format). Darwin, Northern Territory is the only exception to this with pricing provided on an hourly rate plus cost per litre basis.

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For example, current grease trap price per litre as at 19 February 2020 in Sydney metro is $0.20 per litre – all-inclusive rate.

We have a minimum trap size of 1000 litres (i.e., the basic charge is for 1000 litres) to cover the time for stopping etc.

For larger trap sizes (i.e., for 3000 litres and above) we can generally provide better pricing. Please contact us in this regard to discuss your requirements.

Any terms and conditions or small print to this pricing?

The pricing as provided is on a cent per litre basis. Of course, minimum volumes will apply (1000 litres as above). This will only occur if the volumes you require are very small and it would not be commercially viable for a truck to travel to your location.

We will confirm these details with you at time of booking.

The Waster pricing model assumes that the grease interceptor trap set up is accessible by a Tanker truck no more than 15m from the Pit or pump out point and involves one personnel member to perform service. More complex services will require specific pricing.

We look forward to helping you out with high-quality servicing for your business needs at a great grease trap price.

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Australia Grease Trap Cleaning

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Australia grease trap cleaning: many people are uncertain as to how grease traps actually work.

In this part of the section, we will cover some of the main points about greases traps and help you understand why it is important to stick to your Australia grease trap cleaning schedule as suggested or mandated by your local water authority such as Sydney Water in Sydney metro region.

Hopefully, this will help you avoid any costly spillages or fines!

If you operate a commercial kitchen or serving food in a cafe or restaurant, it is good info to have to hand.

For all service queries regarding grease trap cleaning, you can call our friendly service teams on 1300 WASTER. Additionally, you can also access our online waste services shop by pressing the blue button below for all your waste and recycling needs:

Australia grease trap cleaning – how do grease traps actually work?

A grease trap is a simple plumbing device to prevent the city drain lines from becoming blocked up.

As per Wikipedia ” Grease traps have been used since the Victorian days, although Nathaniel Whiting obtained the first patent for a modern-day grease trap in the late 1800s.

They are used to reduce the number of fats, oils and greases (FOGs) that enter the main sewers. Effectively they are boxes within the drain run that flows between the sinks in a kitchen to the sewer system.

They only have kitchen waste water flowing through them and are not served by any other drainage system such as toilets.”

“In the United States, sewers back up annually “an estimated 400,000 times, and municipal sewer overflows on 40,000 occasions”.

As a result…

The EPA has determined that sewer pipe blockages are the leading cause of sewer overflows, and grease is the primary cause of sewer blockages.”

“When the outflow from the kitchen sink enters the grease trap, the solid food particles sink to the bottom while the lighter grease and oil floats to the top.

The relatively grease-free water is then fed into the normal septic system. The food solids at the bottom and floating oil and grease must be periodically removed in a similar manner as with septic tank pumping.”

“Waste from passive grease traps and gravity interceptors is referred to as brown grease. Brown grease is rotted food solids in combination with fats, oils, and grease (FOG).

Brown grease is pumped out of the traps and interceptors by grease pumping trucks. Unlike the collected yellow grease, the majority of brown grease ends up in landfill sites.”

Australia Grease trap cleaning involves having a trusted contractor with a large liquid holding truck come to your facility. The truck pumps the complete contents of the grease trap back into the truck’s tank (i.e., all liquid in the trap or all grease and water).

You can check out other blogs on the topic here: Emergency grease trap cleaning or grease trap Sydney. Also, see an interesting TED talk video in our post on plastic recycling.

See our blog on liquid waste removal. See our blog also on liquid services for restaurants.

This section’s conclusion

Now that you know how a grease trap works, you can make the best choice for your business.

We also point out what to look out for to ensure smooth services. Check our website now!

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Emergency Grease Trap Cleaning

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Emergency grease trap cleaning: what do you do if your business has an overflowing grease trap or one that smells really bad and you need it pumped out immediately. Even worse, what do you do if it is a Saturday afternoon and your usual service company is not picking up their telephone or replying to your emails?

We were contacted on a Saturday morning recently by a business owner (of a hotel) that was hosting a wedding that afternoon and was in an absolute panic. Their grease trap required an urgent pump out and the first three suppliers they had contacted did not answer their phone or told them the earliest the trap could be cleaned would be later in the week. I am glad to say that Waster was able to help the customer out and organise an emergency grease trap cleaning that afternoon.

What you should know about emergency grease trap cleaning in Australia

• Emergency grease trap cleaning is much more expensive than a regular grease trap service. This is because trucks have to be rerouted. In some cases, regularly scheduled customers get bumped to the next day as the trucks can not serve everyone.
• The price differential can be significant. For example, in 2020 in Sydney, a schedule grease trap service could be c.$210+GST for a 1000 litre trap. For emergency service, this could be up to $2000+GST – 10 times the cost.
• It is best to have your contracted supplier do the service. If you have a valid agreement with a grease trap service company – you should have them do the job. At the end of the day – it is their responsibility – and they should do it for free or at the normal call out charge.
• There can be extra costs – i.e. if the trap has not been cleaned in a long time and is “rock solid” with grease. This job will take much longer than usual and will cost more.
• If you can wait a few days – i.e. if it is not impacting your business too much – you can save significant costs.
• It should be noted that having an overflowing trap could lead to larger issues – such as damage to piping systems etc – both in your business and in the city municipal piping system.
• If the trap has not been maintained – or is seen to be overflowing by a water authority or EPA agent – you could be liable for fines.
• Prior to booking in an emergency grease trap cleaning – we are required to take a hold on a credit card (Mastercard or Visa) of $2000.00.
• If the cost is lower than this – it will be reimbursed etc after service.

Moral of the story – how to avoid an emergency grease trap cleaning

There is a common saying in the medical community that prevention is much better than cure – and we certainly agree with this. You do not need an environment consultants to engage a trustworthy and reliable supplier for your scheduled grease trap pump outs – you will certainly avoid the panic of trying to avoid an emergency grease trap cleaning.

Check out an informative article we have published on arranging a high quality and low-cost grease trap pump-out service, namely grease trap price.

In an emergency? Contact Waster!

We will do our best to find a rapid solution to your problem and organise an emergency pump out.

We understand how stressful it can be in a situation like this and our customer service ethos means we will try to help.

Whilst we can not service all emergency grease trap cleaning jobs, we will tell you on the phone upfront. We will also suggest alternatives that can help you.

Check out our prices (for scheduled services) by pressing the blue button below. You will understand that emergency services are on a Price On Application basis, depending on location, timing etc. We also publish blogs on areas such as grease trap Sydney and why emergency grease traps servicing is more expensive.

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In 2020 (especially after COVID), running a restaurant business in Australia is probably gonna become tougher. Customers have a huge number of options to choose from covering both take away and dine-in options. When you are running a restaurant, you need to focus on customer service and your menu. The last thing you need to be worrying about is restaurant grease trap cleaning services.

Difficulties can range from a lack of high quality and qualified staff on the impact of paying penalty rates on weekends, etc. This makes it more important than ever to keep costs down and ensure your restaurant stays open for business.

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Restaurant Grease Trap Cleaning Services

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In this part of the section, we will give an introduction to restaurant grease trap cleaning services for your business. We will also tell you what you need to know to quickly and conveniently arrange regular, scheduled services in line with the local water authority.

About Waster.com.au

Waster is a business that helps small and medium companies with their waste bins, recycling services and services such as medical waste, liquid waste such as restaurant grease trap cleaning services and sanitary bins.

We operate on 30-day agreements so you do not need to sign a long term contract. Also, we do not charge hidden extras!

You can check pricing and arrange your services online today:

What you need to know in 2o20!

We cover below the things to know when arranging restaurant grease trap cleaning services:

Register your trip with the local water authority: depending on which city you live in – there will be requirements with the local water authority such as Sydney Water, Icon Water etc.

You should contact them and register your trip. They will then set a cleaning frequency based on your business size and the trap size – i.e. how many litres it is such as 1000 litres, 2000 litres etc. You can see a blog here on how often you should have the trap cleaned.

Engage a grease trap cleaning company such as Waster: you can then appoint a grease trap cleaning company to provide the service in line with the frequency set above.

This company will perform a site inspection to see where the grease trap is and then start regular cleaning services.

Keep records of the cleaning: you will be required to keep evidence of the cleaning of the trap – as per the set schedule.

Additionally, in Sydney, the cleaning company will need to scan a barcode every time they perform restaurant grease trap cleaning services. In other states, you will need to keep a copy of the confirmation or invoice.

This section’s conclusion

Arranging services for your restaurant can be pretty straight forward; choose a reputable supplier and acquire services performed inline with the required schedule.

You can then focus on what is important: providing a great customer experience!

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Grease Trap Companies

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Grease trap companies: whenever we take a booking for a grease trap service from a new customer or enquiry, one of the first questions we usually hear is “how soon can you pump it out?”

People either want to hear nothing about grease trap cleaning company services or have it serviced immediately!

In most states and metro regions, the local water authority will regulate your business and grease trap to stipulate a frequency for pump outs and then monitor that they have occurred in line with this timetable.

Grease trap companies services – what is a scheduled service?

A scheduled grease trap cleaning or pump out service is on a set time scale. The relevant water authority sets it, reflecting the size of the grease trap and also the type of business operated.  Furthermore, most businesses will have a set schedule or quarterly, six-monthly, etc. But, it can also be as frequent as every month. This really depends on the size of the trap and the type of business you operate.

Generally, the larger the trap and the quieter the business (hence producing less food and grease), the less need for grease trap cleaning companies.

Waster offers grease trap company services on a simple pricing model servicing is on a cent per litre basis.

For example, in Sydney, servicing (as at April 2019) is performed at $0.21 per litre plus GST. Minimum volumes of 1000 litres apply for this pricing (contact us if your grease trap volume is smaller than this). There are no additional charges.

If two service personnel are required from the grease trap company (i.e. if the trap is in an underground carpark, etc.), higher prices may apply.

Thus if your business has a 3000-litre grease trap, the total price for a grease trap cleaning service would be $630.00 plus GST i.e. 3000 times $0.21 plus GST. You will find no additional costs involved. If your business is scheduled to have collections 4 times a year (every 13 weeks) the annual cost would thus be $2,520.00 plus GST.

Grease trap companies near me – why do short notice or emergency services cost significantly more?

Emergency grease trap cleaning is significantly more expensive as other customers need to be rescheduled slightly to make room in a busy schedule to perform your service.

If shopping around in an emergency situation for grease trap cleaning services near me  (i.e. if your trap is already overflowing), keep in mind that a company will need to prioritise your site. As a result, they will potentially bump other sites to another day.

Most grease trap companies or contractors run pretty full timetables and schedules for existing customers.

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Most grease trap trucks will be fully booked for days or weeks in advance and an emergency pump out particularly if the trap is overflowing etc could take valuable hours from a trucks schedule.

Our advice is to always try to avoid an emergency grease traps service by ensuring your trap is serviced in line with requirements as this will safe you significant money in the long run. Check out our blog on document disposal and how to protect your business.

Always avoid pouring oil or fat down the sink; save money by arranging a cooking oil recycling service for your business.

Conclusion in this part of the section

Avoid a lot of pain and stress. Simply adhere to the set pump out schedule. Most reputable grease trap companies will do a good job. They will ensure you avoid the multiple issues of an overflowing trap.

Better safe than sorry!

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Grease Trap Interceptor Sizing

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Grease Trap Interceptor Sizing: many restaurants or any other equivalent businesses can certainly find pumping out trash from their traps quite annoying. Thankfully, Sydney Water has introduced some improvements in their processes; it should hopefully speed up the process and remove stress from business owners.

Grease trap interceptor sizing for your business

Grease trap interceptor sizing is also an important decision prior to opening your foodservice business such as a cafe or restaurant.

Too small a grease trap will mean you need to get in cleaned or pumped out very frequently. This can and will interrupt your business. Furthermore, it can cost you a hefty amount!

Waster also charges a minimum call-out fee (i.e., to cover the driver time, etc.). We have serviced traps as small as 60 litres, which is way too small for any commercial kitchen.

Remember that grease traps can smell quite bad in the cleaning process. So, you really do not want to arrange cleaning too frequently.

If the trap is too large for the business requirements, you will absorb additional costs.

In Sydney, standard grease trap interceptor sizing for a cafe restaurant is between 1000 and 2000 litres. This will usually see your trap being cleaned every three or so months.

Waster provides high quality and low-cost grease trap pump-out services across all major metro regions in Australia. This includes Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Canberra, Adelaide, Newcastle, Gold Coast, Hobart, Darwin, Wollongong and the Central Coast in New South Wales.

Recent improvements in Sydney Grease Traps And Interceptors service process

To arrange Sydney grease interceptor trap service in line with relevant legislation, previously business owners had to file a Change of Transport form with Sydney Water. Due to improvements in Sydney Waters systems, you can now simply contact a provider; they will file your paperwork for you in an online system that is expected to significantly speed up processes.

Under the Wastesafe programme, grease trap services can only be performed by registered companies. In the words of Sydney Water:

“Wastesafe is an electronic tracking system we use to monitor the generation, collection, transport and disposal of grease trap waste”.

“If you have a grease trap, you must select a Wastesafe transporter to clean it (pump it out) at the frequency we set

Your nominated transporter will notify us when you have arranged a service.

Wastesafe authorised transporters adheres to an Industry Code of Practice which was developed in consultation with WCRAThis external link will open in a new window.”

Why you should book through Waster – the best grease trap cleaner in Australia

Once you have your grease trap interceptor sizing sorted, it is time to arrange grease trap cleaning.

Waster offers a low cost and fully compliant grease trap service. Sydney services are performed at the flat rate if $0.21 per litre. This is with a minimum grease trap volume of 1000 litres. This assumes that the job is accessible by the truck and no additional staff are required.

You can book your service by pressing the blue button below – we look forward to helping your business. Also, check out our article on whether all garbage removal services are the same.

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Grease Trap Waste

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Grease Trap Waste: we all know that organising industrial services for your business such as grease trap cleaning or waste bin collections can be quite difficult if you do not know much about the subject. Let’s face it – why would you know much about grease trap waste when you do not have to? It is for this reason that we have produced an easy to read and free guide to grease trap cleaning for business owners in Australia.

Waster offers a real alternative to small and medium Australian businesses. We provide low cost and reliable waste and recycling services on flexible 30-day agreements. You never need to worry about lock-in contracts or rollover clauses again with our flexible agreements.

Download your guide to grease trap waste and organising your required services

Arranging regular grease interceptor services is one of those necessary evils in life like paying taxes. You need to be in line with your local water authority guidance (such as Sydney Water). We wrote our guide to provide free advice to business owners. This is also for managers who probably have not had much to do with grease trap waste in the past. They might want to avoid making costly mistakes as much as anything else, hence searching for this.

We state here an extract from the document on 4 common grease trap rip-offs:

RIP-OFF #1: UNBELIEVABLY LOW PRICE

To some degree, all of us are attracted by low price because we want to work within a budget. But, some grease trap companies use price as the bait for their false and misleading advertising. They offer a cheap price and then steadily increase prices over time. This can hurt you especially if you have signed a multi-year contract.

RIP-OFF #2: HIDDEN EXTRAS

Most grease trap cleaning is on a per litre basis. However, be careful that there are no additional fees such as transport costs, disposal costs or staff hours.

RIP-OFF #3: OVER SERVICING

This should not be too big an issue. In many areas, the service schedule is set by the local water authority. However, if you are required to keep records of servicing, you should confirm with the water authority what the schedule is; the servicing can happen from with 3 months or 6 months, so you have to confirm.

RIP-OFF #4: EXTRA LITRES

If a grease trap has, say, 1000 litres, the company you engage should pump out 1000 litres (this will be a mixture of water and grease). If the company has been sticking to the schedule, there should be no need for extra litres. Note: if the trap has not been cleaned for a long time, extra litres may be needed when the cleaner needs to add extra water to clean excessive grease.