Rachel writes…

One of the unexpected pleasures (ahem) of being a councillor is being added to every organisation’s email list, ever. Meaning that when I sit down to get on with my casework or other ongoing bits and pieces, I first spend some time unsubscribing from lists, sending my apologies to obscure events happening all over the UK, weighing up whether I will really ever get time to read X organisation’s highly vital newsletter… and of course summarily deleting a large quantity of unsolicited messages.

So I am sorry to admit that my finger hovered over ‘delete’ as I read through a campaigning email filled with customary phrases like ‘important campaign’, ‘can you help raise awareness’. Then, rather in the manner of one who awakes from sleep walking, I re-read it, and realised – ‘hang on, this really IS important’.

The topic, unglamorously, is cooking fat. I once saw some news coverage where they were talking about the frankly disgusting topic of the ‘fatbergs’ that are accumulating in our sewers in London. These are huge lumps of congealed fat, mixed with baby wipes, that are the result of many people pouring away said cooking fat, and flushing said baby wipes down the toilet, which build up, cause blockages and cost us all time and money.

Obviously no one wants to think about such things (I politely declined Thames Water’s offer to take me down to have a look at them). But there they are, under our feet. Not getting any smaller. I remembered this campaign when I was pouring some cooking fat into a jar, so that I could bin it, and thought I would pen a quick post as a reminder.

Bin it, don’t block it. Or next time I will share pictures of fatbergs, and believe me no one wants to see that… 😉