Image: Pictured from left Elsie Kirwan, (11); Megan-Rose Power (10); and Aimee Kirwan (9) support Clean Coasts and Uisce Éireann in urging you to be a good Egg in the kitchen this Easter and help the environment in the process. Image: Naoise Culhane
Clean Coasts and Uisce Éireann are urging you to be a good egg in the kitchen this Easter and help the environment in the process. Whether you’re the cook, baker, helper, or plate scraper, whatever your role in the kitchen this Easter, make sure to lead by eggs-ample and Think Before You Pour fats, oils and greases down the sink!
Uisce Éireann confirmed that pouring fats, oils and greases down the sink is causing blocked sewers right across the country with approximately 200 call outs a week.
Clean Coasts and Uisce Éireann are calling on the public to take a simple step this Easter and use empty egg cartons to collect cooled fats, oils and greases before disposing of them into the general waste bin or (if it is small amounts), the curb side collected compost bin.
Fats, oils and greases may seem like liquid when poured down the sink, but they cool and harden as they travel along the pipes and can cause blockages in our homes, businesses, the public sewer network and wastewater treatment plants. They can even lead to overflows of sewage in our communities and pollution in rivers, on beaches and in the ocean. When fats, oils and greases combine with wipes and other sewage related litter such as hair, dental floss and sanitary products that shouldn’t be flushed down the toilet, fatbergs can form. Uisce Éireann responded to approximately 10,000 customer notified blockages in 2022 alone.
It’s evident that people’s attitude to what is poured down the kitchen sink is improving. According to a survey conducted in 2022*, 30% of people are regularly pouring fats, oils and greases down the sink compared to 44% in 2018. This is a positive improvement but there is still more to be done.
Speaking about the size and scale of the issue Donal Heaney, Operations Lead at Uisce Éireann said:
This Easter, in partnership with Clean Coasts, we are asking everyone to support the Think Before You Pour campaign and lead by eggs-ample. Help reduce the number of wastewater blockages caused by fats, oils and grease and prevent sewage backing up into our homes, gardens or spilling into the local environment. We want to remind the public not to use their kitchen sink as a bin and to ‘Think before You Pour’. Let’s work together and keep our pipes free-flowing and environment clean.
Speaking about the campaign, Sinead McCoy, Coastal Communities Manager, Clean Coasts said:
This Easter, Clean Coasts are asking the public to take positive environmental actions to be green. One simple action that can be done in the home is to collect FOGs in an egg carton for the bin.
*Results from Think Before You Flush/Pour Behaviour and Attitudes survey 2022 indicate that 30% of people are regularly pouring fats, oils and greases down the sink compared to 44% in 2018. Survey sample included 1,015 adults aged 18 years plus.
Social media:
Facebook: @CleanCoasts @IrishWater Twitter: @CleanCoasts @IrishWater Instagram: @cleancoasts
#CleanCoasts #ThinkB4UPour www.thinkbeforeyoupour.org
Think Before You Pour is a public awareness campaign highlighting the problems caused by pouring fats, oils and greases (FOGs) down the sink. Consequences include the formation of fatbergs, which are very large masses of solid waste in a sewerage system, consisting especially of congealed fat that have been poured down the sink and personal hygiene products that have been flushed down toilets. This causes blockages in household plumbing and the wastewater network. The goal of the campaign is to encourage people to always #thinkb4upour. The campaign is operated by Clean Coasts (An Taisce) in partnership with Uisce Éireann. Think Before You Pour is a section of the Think Before You Flush Campaign, which highlights the problems associated with flushing inappropriate items, such as wipes and cotton buds, down the toilet.
About Clean Coasts:
In 2023, Clean Coasts is celebrating its 20th birthday. Clean Coasts is a charity programme, run through the Environmental Education Unit of An Taisce, which engages communities in the protection of Ireland’s beaches, seas and marine life.
Since 2003, Clean Coasts has been working with communities to help protect and care for Ireland’s waterways, coastline, seas, ocean and marine life. Clean Coasts thrives to create tangible and immediate improvements to Ireland’s coastal environment, involving thousands of volunteers removing large quantities of marine litter from our coastline each year.
For the past 20 years, Clean Coasts has grown from strength to strength and now includes two main national clean-up drives, as well as other initiatives, including the Green Coast Award, the Love Your Coast Photography competition, the Clean Coasts Roadshows for coastal communities and the Ocean Hero Awards. All these initiatives are aimed at celebrating the beauty of our coast and the efforts of our volunteers across all of Ireland.
Currently, there are over 2,000 registered Clean Coasts volunteering groups and 40,000 volunteers. There are a variety of group types such as community groups, residents’ associations, tidy towns groups, sports clubs, schools, businesses, universities etc. Clean Coasts organises hundreds of beach clean-ups annually mobilising thousands of volunteers, removing considerable quantities of marine litter from Ireland’s beaches and waterways. Our volunteering has expanded to also include Corporate Volunteering.