A Burger King employee in Greece, New York was caught on camera pouring several gallons of used cooking oil straight into a storm sewer — one that empties into nearby Paddy Hill Creek.
A passerby named Doug Bates spotted two workers walking out of the restaurant with grease pans and watched them dump the contents into the drain. He photographed the scene and came back that night with paper towels to soak up what he could.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation confirmed that between three and five gallons were dumped illegally. The restaurant, operated by JSC Management, said the employee's actions violated company policy and that the worker has since been disciplined and retrained.
Here's the part that should land with everyone in our industry: the franchise owner confirmed the location had a proper grease holding tank on site. It just wasn't used.
The downstream cost is real. Fats, oils, and grease (FOG) congeal inside sewer lines into "fatbergs" that cause roughly 90% of municipal sewer blockages. New York City alone spends an estimated $18 million a year clearing them.
For UCO collectors, the story isn't really about one employee or one restaurant. It's about how often the holding tank stays empty because no one on the closing shift was ever shown how to use it.
