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Trade Wastewater and the Food Services Industry

Sydney Water has developed the Managing trade wastewater in the food service industry (PDF - 1.2MB) booklet to help customers in the industry obtain a trade waste permit and effectively dispose of greasy waste.

Wastesafe

Customers who have a grease trap or grease extractor unit become part of Wastesafe when they sign a trade waste permit with Sydney Water.

Wastesafe is an environmentally safe and friendly system that monitors the removal and disposal of trade wastewater from businesses' grease traps - keeping the wastewater out of the sewerage system where it can block the system, cause overflows into the environment or overload sewerage treatment plants.

If your business generates greasy wastewater, adequate pre-treatment will need to be installed before the wastewater is discharged. To become part of Wastesafe you will need a suitable grease trap to reduce grease entering into the sewerage system.

If you don't already have a grease trap, you must organise for a licensed plumber to install one. Sydney Water has a contact list of grease trap manufacturers (PDF - 80KB) and suppliers. It also has a list of Wastesafe transporters (PDF - 16KB) who are licenced to dispose of grease trap waste.

The cost of a grease trap depends on its size and how difficult it is to install on the site. The more waste your business produces, the bigger the trap will need to be. Contractors who take the greasy waste to a Wastesafe depot must be licensed by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC).

• List of Wastesafe transporters (PDF - 16KB)
• Pre-treatment of trade wastewater from commercial customers (PDF - 2.2MB)

By conducting good housekeeping practices before washing plates - scraping plates of food scraps into a garbage bin - will significantly reduce the number of required grease trap pump outs.

Costs

As part of a trade wastewater permit, Sydney Water gives each trade waste customer's nominated contractor a book of bar coded dockets to keep track of the wastewater from their grease traps (a grease trap reduces the amount of grease going into the sewerage system).

The dockets show how often the waste must be removed from the grease trap.

Your contractor will charge for the labour involved in cleaning out the grease trap and the costs of transporting the waste. They will bill you directly for these costs. After a licensed contractor empties the grease trap, they deliver the waste to a Wastesafe depot where the bar coded docket is scanned. This information containing date of service and volume collected is then electronically sent to Sydney Water for generating the processing cost. Sydney Water charges for the cost of processing and disposing of the waste. This is charged on a per litre basis so that the more waste you have, the more it will cost. These charges will appear on your Sydney Water account as a greasy waste processing charge.

Trade wastewater fees and charges for the food service industry (PDF - 47KB)

Recycling Cooking Oils

Used cooking oil and fats are to be poured into a recycling container and picked up by a transporter licensed by the Department Environment and Conservation (DEC). Never put cooking oil or fats down the drain. This will cause your grease trap pump outs to rise significantly which in turn will cost you more.

Recyclers of used cooking oil (PDF - 127KB)