Global environmental crisis, when we think about it really carefully, starts in the home. Our local actions can definitely impact our surroundings on a global scale. When actions – both the good and the bad ones – are once accumulated and summated, can definitely make an impact. The impact that we want to experience and feel is directly proportional to our actions and behaviors. A good example to illustrate this is the local and global issue of sanitary drain usage.

Admit it. We all have those moments when we just really had to stuff all the hair from our hairbrushes down the drain because it is very unruly to find strands of hair laying lifelessly on the sink. Instead of picking up the strands one by one, flushing it all down the drain with volumes of water does the trick. However, that very activity is reason enough for drain-related issues that 2 out of 5 Singaporean households face. Human hair is non-soluble. It cannot transform itself into tiny little harmless particles, nor does it change its form once it is eliminated from the physical world and down to the drain. Human hair once stuffed down the drain remains as is, and once it gets accumulated, it can create a web that prohibits other liquid deposits from travelling down the pipes. Aside from hair, grease deposits can create an even bigger problem in terms of sanitary drain usage.

Grease deposits, when not kept in a grease trap once it goes down the drain, can render the drain in question useless.  It can halt business operations for commercial kitchens that have non-functioning drains. However, the impact of grease going down the drain is bigger than its immediate effects. Grease, when not separated properly from the average liquid deposit, can cause a significant problem in the land fill. Landfills are not exclusive for one person alone. A whole state, a whole city and an accumulation of different neighborhoods use only one landfill. Ignoring safety and sanitary measures to deposit grease and other fatty and oily substances properly can also create a malodorous environment especially for residents who live near these facilities. Moreover, with greasy, fatty and oily substances, it cannot go anywhere but up, thus causing a stressful backflow. If you see a layer or spots of opaque liquid on water surfaces, you know those are oil and those cannot be extracted from the seas by simply using a grease trap. It can damage marine life and other sea life forms that thrive solely on clean, safe water.

Also, when grease is not separated from the ordinary liquid deposits, water filtration systems that are applied to make these clean and useful again as possible may render itself useless as well. If people cannot take advantage of having clean recycled water for watering plants in their garden, cleaning cars in the garage and for other household activities that does not necessarily require a steady stream of filtered water, then what would our future be? If the greasy enemy that makes life a living nightmare is not addressed today, what would the world be like in the months and years to come?