WAITROSE is teaming up Scottish Water to help customers prevent sinks and drains becoming blocked with cooking fat this Christmas.
Each of Waitrose’s Scottish supermarkets will be handing out free fat traps, provided by Scottish Water, to all customers when they collect their pre-ordered turkeys.
When cooled, fat hardens and can clog pipes when poured down sinks.
These sorts of blockages, which cost Scottish Water millions of pounds annually to clear, can lead to flooding inside homes and businesses and are expensive to clear, money that could be invested elsewhere.
The secure fat trap boxes Waitrose is handing out this year to customers can be used to collect and secure leftover cooking fat and oil, so it can be put in the bin, rather than down the drain.
Quentin Clark, head of Sustainability at Waitrose, said: “Fat in the sewers is a big problem, particularly at this time of year. What we are giving away is just a small box, but we hope it will make a big difference. We are committed to supporting local communities and helping to reduce this problem across Scotland and the wider UK.
“By encouraging our customers to use our free fat-traps, we can dramatically cut the percentage of damage caused to drains by fat, oil and grease.”
Chris Wallace, Scottish Water’s director of communications, said: “We’re pleased to be involved in this joint campaign with Waitrose.
“We attended to over 40,000 blockages in Scotland’s drains and sewers last year, around 80 per cent of which were caused by people putting the wrong thing down their drains – cooking fat included.
“If Waitrose customers pick up and use their fat traps, it will really help to lighten the load on the Scottish water system over Christmas and the New Year.”
Across the UK, blocked drains rise by 25 per cent during the festive season, with more than 1,000 tonnes of leftover cooking fat poured down sinks – the equivalent weight of two million Christmas puddings.
This Christmas, Waitrose is giving away 120,000 fat traps with pre-ordered turkeys. Waitrose customers in Edinburgh (Morningside, Comely Bank), Glasgow (Byres Road), Newton Mearns, Helensburgh and Stirling can pre-order turkeys in their local shop or online at www.waitrose.com
Scottish Water customers can learn more about what they can do to keep the cycle running, what should not be flushed down toilets or poured down sinks and how they can save their drains, protect their homes, their neighbours’ homes and the local environment at www.scottishwater.co.uk/cycle.
ENDS
For further information please contact the Scottish Water press office on 01383 848236 or Keith Sinclair, press officer, on 0141 414 7186 or at keith.sinclair@scottishwater.co.uk.
@ScotWaterNews
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For further information on Waitrose in Scotland or interview requests, please contact Sarah McDaid, Pagoda PR (0131 556 0770/ sarah.mcdaid@pagodapr.com)
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