An overview of trade waste systems, in particular dealing with non-compliant grease management systems can potentially cause a facility to be unnecessarily shut down, face numerous fines and lead to possible loss of revenue.

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3. www.fmmagazine.com.au FEBRUARY | MARCH 2016 FM
SLIPPERY
WHEN WET
– avoiding trade waste management issues
Unfortunately, grease management is often an overlooked priority for
facility managers. PAUL ANGUS discusses how a non-compliant grease
arrestor can potentially cause a facility to be unnecessarily shut down,
face numerous fines and lead to a possible loss of revenue.
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4. www.fmmagazine.com.auFM APRIL | MAY 2016
16 | LEAD FEATURE
Y
ou will always remember your first time.
The stench, it’s unmistakeable. It’s truly
unforgettable – an experience that certainly
stays with you forever.
No matter how many times you
are exposed, it’s like no other. If you’ve never had the
opportunity of experiencing the results of an accumulation
of fats, oils and grease (FOG), the main contents of a
grease arrestor – especially one that has been incorrectly
installed or maintained – then thank your lucky stars.
For me, my first encounter with a grease arrestor was as a
young 18-year-old apprentice plumber. As the novice, I was
tasked with resolving the issue, much to my journeyman’s
amusement.
I’ll save you the graphic details of the extremely smelly
and unbelievably sticky greasy waste I encountered, all while
confined to a small courtyard at the rear of an upmarket
restaurant. No matter how many times you wash your hands,
shower and change your clothes, the smell lingers with you
for weeks after. Fast forward nearly 20 years – I was recently
undertaking a due diligence survey in a large shopping mall,
where a grease arrestor had been obviously neglected and
poorly maintained for a significant length of time.
As the arrestor was located in a small room within a
basement, where the mechanical ventilation system was not
operational, this resulted in the stench being horrendous. The
floor was so sticky it felt as though I was walking on strips of
Velcro, having to physically lift each foot, shedding a layer off
the sole of my boots with every step.
As with all hydraulic systems that are hidden from
view, this particular grease arrestor room was clearly out
of sight and out of mind, being so unhygienic that even the
cockroaches had given up all hope of survival and were
strewn in a large pile behind the door.
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5. www.fmmagazine.com.au APRIL | MAY 2016 FM
What’s the worst that could possibly happen? For many of
us, designing, commissioning and maintaining a trade waste
installation within any type of facility in a safe and compliant
manner requires careful consideration, which cannot be
overlooked, without major repercussions.
Because not fully appreciating the maintenance regimes
for that far room in the basement of your facility – the one
that nearly everyone mentions has a strange lingering odour,
the zone where nobody dares to venture and there are always
a few spare car park spaces – could have dire consequences.
Nearly all commercial facilities require some kind of trade
waste drainage installation. In most circumstances, existing
facilities containing trade waste installations undergo
multiple refurbishments throughout the building’s design life.
The challenge facing the facility manager is to ensure each
new food outlet tenant achieves and maintains compliance
with the most appropriate pre-treatment, prior to conveying
to the local authority sewer drainage system.
Being unaware of the level of design compliance required,
as well as often trusting subcontractors undertaking tenant
fitouts, can distract the building owner or facility manager
from optimising the client experience and, at worst, can
become catastrophic, complex issues.
Adapting and converting lettable spaces from retail units
into new food outlets will have a direct impact on the volume
of waste in the existing grease arrestor.
Not only does this have an impact on capital, life cycle
and maintenance costs, it also has an effect on the available
spatial requirements and this can have an impact on available
car park spaces, which could have been otherwise rented out.
The facility manager can often be caught in the middle
of corporate budgets, advice given from engineering design
teams, subcontractors and the client, as well as existing
tenants.
The plumbing system doesn’t always get considered
and can be perilously overlooked, that is until a problem
occurs, and when the problem involves a tenant with a large
restaurant that can lead to a very big headache for the facility
manager.
When designing a new building, the hydraulic consultant
will be on hand to advise on the trade waste requirements.
When retrofitting, however, the tenant fitout team can often
be focused on the latest or costliest piece of equipment within
the kitchen, instead of focusing on dealing with and treating
the grease, which can inadvertently result in clogging the
drainage system.
Some of the most common issues begin before the facility
manager can have any influence at all, occurring early on at
the design stage, often due to the wrong information being
requested or provided.
With any refurbishment within an existing building,
however, the facility manager is a key influencer in
determining that the correct type of grease management
system is installed, based upon their knowledge and
experience of the facility.
The challenge facing the facility
manager is to ensure each new
food outlet tenant achieves and
maintains compliance with the
most appropriate pre-treatment,
prior to conveying to the local
authority sewer drainage system.
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6. www.fmmagazine.com.auFM APRIL | MAY 2016
18 | LEAD FEATURE
The most common issues in existing buildings involve
locating food outlets too far from the existing grease arrestor.
This can be troublesome, due to the time taken for the grease
waste to convey from the commercial kitchen area to the
arrestor. This time lag means the grease contained within the
wastewater will start cooling down and solidifying.
Over a short period of time this causes blockages within the
network, resulting in disruption of the facility and the tenant
not being able to operate, foul odours entering the building and
trade waste violations – all of which ultimately result in loss of
revenue damages to the corporate brand and reputation.
The location of the grease arrestor is paramount to ensure
future servicing and maintenance for both emptying and
cleaning periodically with little or minor disruption to the
occupants. Retrofitting within an existing facility can always
be troublesome; however, every problem has a solution. This
issue can be simply overcome by installing a new grease
arrestor in close proximity to the source, with alternative
methods including heat tracing/insulating pipework – each
case is different.
It’s important to consider the equipment and fixture
selection, as well as the location. For hygiene reasons, the
wastewater discharge can be at a significant temperature as
it goes down the drainage pipework, often in excess of 70 to
75 degrees Celsius, making the pipework material selection of
critical importance.
The pipework is installed in straight lengths, but if the
material has been incorrectly specified it will result in
pipework that will sag due to being warped.
Not only does this cause future blockages, it can also be a
hazard to the occupants on the level below, who are at risk of
scalding, should the pipework give way and burst.
Another issue of high temperature discharge located
in close proximity to the grease arrestor can be the grease
effluent being flushed straight through the trap.
This is an example of poor design and one that we
remedied recently at an independent survey on a busy
building in Bondi, Sydney (with multiple restaurants
and takeaway food outlets). The issue was overcome by
reconfiguring the pipework arrangement.
Grease bypassing the trap will cause further issues down
the line, in particular with the local water authority. A recent
example of this occurred in the City of London in the UK,
which is plagued with incorrect trade waste installations.
Congealed fat, oils, wet wipes and domestic waste that
enters the drainage system often results in large deposits or
‘fatbergs’ floating within the sewer system.
In 2015, The Guardian newspaper reported that a 10-tonne
fatberg had been removed from the ageing sewer system,
taking over two months to remove and costing the Thames
Water Authority in excess of $800,000, resulting in a
clampdown on food outlets and fines being imposed.
Various local water authorities in Australia have launched
marketing campaigns to raise awareness of disposing of FOG
materials from within the sewer system.
So how can we avoid taking shortcuts? The majority of
contractors and shopfitters are reliable and professional;
however, a good design doesn’t always result in the best
installation, or vice versa. The cheapest option is not always
the right option to gain compliance. Always look to conduct
a long-term workable solution, which will benefit the client
and tenant alike, as well as keep servicing and maintenance
contracts to a minimum.
No matter how large or small a fitout is, it is always
recommended to engage an independent consultant to
advise upon issues of compliance with standards and codes,
providing piece of mind for both the new tenant and the
building facility manager.
As with all systems, the key to a successful design is to
consider the whole life cycle of the system installed and its
usage, before preparing a regular and routine maintenance
regime. In any trade waste installation, the key to avoiding
blocked pipework is staff training. Instigating control
measures to avoid large particles entering the trade waste
system is crucial. Avoiding cooking oil entering the system
requires designated areas for storing and preventing spillage.
Generally, grease arrestors require cleaning every three
months, although each case varies and depends totally upon
the storage available and usage. In the majority of cases, the
local water authority will require a trade waste agreement and
the facility will be subject to spot checks.
It is the facility management’s responsibility, however, to
ensure regular preventative maintenance is undertaken to
avoid costly reactive repairs later.
Paul Angus is the hydraulic and
fire discipline leader at Erbas
& Associates. Paul has strong
commercial and technical capability
in developing and delivering
hydraulic design strategies and
solutions. He specialises in providing
a sustainable approach to system
design, including water conservation, recycling and generation
of innovative engineering solutions.
The location of the grease
arrestor is paramount to ensure
future servicing and maintenance
for both emptying and cleaning
periodically with little or minor
disruption to the occupants.
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