Grease Monkey business

12/10/2004

A larger than life monkey character has been set loose on the streets of the North East to tell a dirty story!

The monkey character called Chips – the grease monkey – has been created by Northumbrian Water to raise awareness of the problems caused when grease, cooking oil and fat are poured down sinks and drains.

Chips has a clean message to his dirty story – dispose of grease properly to prevent homes and gardens being flooded, damage to the environment being caused and help keep sewer maintenance work down.

Hot or cold grease is a problem which blocks sewers. It comes from many sources including margarine, butter, lard, cooking oil, chip pans, meat fats, food scraps and sauces.

Cleaning grease at just one big treatment works costs alone about £50,000 a year and Northumbrian Water has almost 450 treatment works and 15,500 km of sewers to look after.

The best way to dispose of cooking oil and grease is to allow it to cool then scrape or pour it out into newspaper or an old cardboard box and put it in the bin.

Graham Neave, Operations Director for Northumbrian Water, said: “Using the monkey Chips is a light-hearted way to highlight a serious message and with the support of our 2.6 million customers we can really make a difference.

“Sewers are only designed to take waste water from the home – all other waste should go out with the rubbish.”

Note to News Desks:

Northumbrian Water is taking Chips on tour throughout its area, stretching from Berwick in the North down to North Yorkshire and across to the Pennines. If you would like Chips to climb out of a sewer near you - or get up to some monkey business somewhere else of your choosing - contact Joanne Dye, Communications Adviser, for further information on: 0191 301 6733.