02/05/05 - Franchise Road Stories
Fast Food Grease In London Sewers
Last month Franchise.com was in Paris to exhibit at the annual Franchise Expo Paris. My staff and I arrived two days prior to the event so we had time to explore "The City of Lights". I suggested jokingly about a tour of the Paris sewers. We talked about Les Miserables by Victor Hugo having taken place in part in the underbelly of Paris.
We decided to walk the "better parts" of Paris instead, strolled the
Seine, window shopped, drank Champagne, dined on escargot, choucroute,
steak tartare, and creme brule. Ooh la la! We survived well!
The following week we were in London to exhibit at the British Franchise Expo. March 30, when reading The Guardian newspaper, there was a front cover feature on the sewers of London. It had to be read!
This fascinating and well-written report was appropriately titled "Smells Like Trouble". In the article the writer, Blake Morrison, journeyed into London's sewers, with a flusher (a sewer inspection employee) employed by Thames Water.
From this article I learned a lot, such as that the Romans had a goddess of sewers, Cloacina, and that Titus Tacitus erected a statue to her in the Roman Forum. Hmmm.
Apparently no one wants to know about the sewers, unless something goes
wrong, which happened in August 2004. The average rainfall for one month fell in two hours, and 600,000 tons of raw sewage flushed out into the Thames. The pollution killed thousands of fish, and rowers and canoeists were hospitalized. A sewage tsunami!
Mike, the flusher, shared with Morrison that the "real enemies" of the
sewers are the fast food outlets, which include many franchises. "Fast
food means fat, and fat, not (excrement), is what flushers hate. When fat is hot it flows, so people pour it down the sink, but then it solidifies further down the line and we have to do the dirty work." In those places in the sewer where a slug of fat is several cubic meters in volume, then pressure jetting is't enough to clear it. "Pick-axes are used instead."
When reading this article, it caused me to remember that a few years ago an Australian franchise advertised on Franchise.com. They provided grease trap cleaning services to restaurant and fast food enterprises. I made note to look up that company to learn if it still existed, and if it could come to the rescue of the Thames and the flushers!
I had almost forgotten about all of this after my return to San Diego, but then I read an environmental article in Mother Jones magazine. It reminded me to follow up to learn if that grease drain cleaning franchise was still around. Sure enough, by searching Google I found Environmental Biotech, plus a lot more about grease and grease traps than I really wanted to know. Oh! The good news is that Environmental Biotech has an area developer in Essex, UK. Perhaps they can save the London sewers and the flushers?
Good news is that FiltaFry also provides this service in the UK and throughout the World. Information on buying a FiltaFry franchise can be found by going to http://www.franchise.com/en/us/template/buyer%2CAllListings.vm
Grease not only clogs sewers, and creates odors, but also becomes part of the food chain by being recycled as part of animal feed. Grease is of major international concern too. I found Internet sites for Northern Ireland, South Africa, India and China which set-out development, building requirements, and/or recommendations to restaurateurs and caterers.
In my Google search using the search term "international restaurant grease trap government compliance legal". I was surprised to find that the Nevada Restaurant Association website appears in number 6 position. It provided a link to a Las Vegas based "Grease Tank Pumping, Fat & Bone Service".
Hmmm. I wondered, could this be a missing clue to the missing chili finger Wendy's would like to forget? Same town!
Now you see how much you can learn by attending or exhibiting in Franchise expositions internationally!
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