How to dispose of liquid waste

Now, before you become completely confused. We’re talking about liquid waste in your kitchen, not the other kind, so breathe! There are so many questions, issues and myths about liquid waste so we thought we’d discuss a few to help plumbing flow freely through homes. It’s far too tempting to pour any liquid down your sink. In fact, we know people put much worse in their sinks, but that’s for another day. But just because something is a liquid means it belongs in your drains. So let’s get right to it and talk about liquid waste disposal.

Cooking oils and fats 

We recently talked about how to deal with cooking oils and fats on our blog. It’s because they’re one of the main reasons for plumbing issues in our homes and communities. Here is a quick recap on how we mentioned you can deal with this type of liquid waste. 

You can use old glass jars which contained sauce to pour your cooking oil, fats and grease into while they’re hot. Keep adding to it, allowing it to cool each time before seeking to recycle it. Some councils will recycle the glass jar with the fat inside and the kerb, otherwise, you will have to scoop the cooled fat out into your food waste bin and then recycle the glass separately.

Now, if you make all your sauces from scrap or don’t have any to hand, you can always try this alternative method. Lay some tin foil into your sinkhole, creating a small cup. Pour your hot fat into the tin foil cup and wait for it to cool. This takes no longer than 10 minutes. Once it’s cooled you can put it into your food waste recycling bin. 

If you feel like doing some food upcycling, you can always use the grease while it’s hot. Grab a piece of bread, soak it all up and toast it for a crouton-like tasty treat. 

Spoiled milk 

We believe that for most people, this is where the lines blur. You go to use your milk, but it’s gone bad. You can smell it, but it hasn’t quite gone lumpy just yet. What do you do with this sour milk? First of all, you shouldn’t put it in your drains – including down the toilet. Spoiled milk can quickly clog up and block pipes when it goes off so try one of these other ideas. 

Milk can be good for your plants. Mix it in a 50/50 mixture with water and spray it lightly onto your outdoor plants, or alternatively add it directly to your compost pile.  In some local areas, you can put spoiled milk into your food waste bin ready for collection. Check with your local council to see if this is possible. If you don’t have an outdoor space or a food waste bin, there are plenty of other ideas out there – including making cheese, preparing pet food and tenderising steaks!  

Smoothies and other ‘thick’ drinks 

Pouring squash or juice down the sink is just a waste. But what about things like smoothies and protein shakes? These drinks won’t keep forever. So how do you dispose of them when the time comes? Our personal favourite – freeze them! 

If you’re worried out won’t finish a drink in time. Whether it’s a smoothie, protein shake, yoghurt drink or anything else you can think of. Freeze it. All the fresh fruit ingredients and the dairy involved such as milk are easy and safe to freeze. Pop it in an ice tray, and freeze it. Next time you go to make a smoothie, why not use some of your frozen cubes to add some flavour.

There’s a lot of confusion going on with liquid waste. Everything needs to be disposed of in a safe way in order to not harm our local environment. But most of the liquid waste we dispose of never needs to be created in the first place. While avoiding cooking oils, grease and fats are trickier – milk and smoothies never need to be wasted. They can be frozen. So, whether you freeze some milk before its expiry date and then add it to your morning cup of tea or if you freeze the leftover smoothie for extra flavour another day. Do what you can to prevent liquid waste.