Don't Turn Your Black Friday into a Brown One

Avoid Costly, Messy Sewer Backups: CAN THE GREASE

Never Pour Grease Down the Drain: Can It, Cool It, Toss It

Written by

Lyn Riggins

Laurel, Md. – November 26, 2025 – While shoppers everywhere gear up for Black Friday, plumbers prepare for something far less glamorous: 💩 Brown Friday! The day after Thanksgiving is notorious for clogged pipes and messy, not to mention expensive, sewer backups. WSSC Water strongly encourages customer to CAN THE GREASE and you can spend Black Friday shopping, not mopping!

If it’s greasy, gooey, gloppy, drippy, or suspiciously shiny… CAN IT. Whether turkey drippings and gravy during the holidays or everyday grease like bacon fat, the rule stays the same:

WSSC Water asks that you Can the Grease! Avoide a sewer backup this Thanksgiving. Can it. Cool it. Toss it.

CAN IT.
Pour grease into an empty soup can.

COOL IT.
Put the can in the freezer or refrigerator until the grease hardens.

TOSS IT.
Throw it in the trash once the can is full.

Grease accumulates and hardens inside sewer pipes – narrowing the space where the wastewater flows. Over time, a full blockage will occur, causing messy and costly sewage backups in homes/businesses or overflowing manholes. When sewage spills from manholes, it becomes an environmental hazard, polluting creeks, streams and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.

Grease is a factor in nearly one-third (32 percent) of all sewer overflows in the WSSC Water wastewater collection system.

Pouring grease down the drain leads to blockages that could cause serious problems such as sewer backups.

WSSC Water customers can get more information, including a free Can the Grease lid, by visiting www.wsscwater.com/canthegrease.

WSSC Water is a not-for-profit public utility focused on serving our 1.9 million customers, not shareholders. Every dollar collected is reinvested directly into infrastructure, technology and workforce to strengthen reliability, improve service and protect public health for generations to come.