Ever-expanding pungent blobs of fatty deposits made up of oil and grease unceremoniously dumped down kitchen drains along with just about anything you can imagine that gets flushed down the toilet are becoming a big problem in urban centers across the globe. So much so these congealed masses of sewer-clogging waste have been christened fatbergs, and they’re wreaking havoc on sanitation systems unable to pass the vomit-inducing decaying trash through their (often aging) pipelines.
New York City has spent $18 million over the past five years trying to unclog it sewer lines of fatbergs. Workers in Baltimore were added to the growing collection of hazmat-wearing individuals photographed holding up globs of fatbergs in their hands like a fisherman proudly displaying a decent-sized trout after a good day on the lake. Those workers were responsible for dislodging a fatberg that recently caused 1.2 million gallons of raw sewage to be discharged into a waterway.
In the U.K., London is displaying its unwanted fat for the public to see first-hand what happens when substances that should be tossed in the trash find their way to the kitchen sink instead. The Museum of London has opened an exhibit that features a small chunk of a massive fatberg discovered in September 2017 clogging a city sewer line. Unlike other cities London is working on recycling fatbergs into biofuel, although it is still urging its citizens to please stop flushing wet naps and chicken grease down the toilet.
Story by Jay Moon
Sources
- Massive London ‘fatberg’ to be turned into museum exhibit
- How crews are busting congealed blobs of fat in London sewers and turning them into fuel
- Putrid fatberg is museum’s ‘most disgusting display ever’
- Huge Blobs of Fat and Trash Are Filling the World’s Sewers
- Gigantic ‘Fatberg’ Of Congealed Waste Clogs Sewer In Baltimore
