Manager: We had hood cleaning scheduled for a Tuesday night and I did not have to work Wednesday. I was behind on paperwork, so I stayed over to finish paperwork without any team member distractions. When I finished, I went to one guy in the kitchen hanging plastic and told him I was leaving for the night and to please shut the back door and set the alarm when they were done. He told me to watch my step when leaving through the back door. I did not ask why, but quickly realized the hazard in so many ways!
I could not believe what they were doing!! They were actually pressure washing our greasy filters with a foam cleaner. The foam, and all the grease from the filters, was going straight on to our parking lot and going straight into the storm drain that leads into a creek on the side of the parking lot and from there, goes to a pond. I could not believe it!! That foam had heavy duty degreaser, not to mention all the grease from the filters, and was contaminating the pond. I asked them to please stop immediately and they did, but they indicated they would have to put the remainder of the filters by the dishwasher so we could wash them in the morning. I continued the conversation by asking them how many of our locations they clean for our company and they mentioned that they clean the entire region, “8 locations”.
I was so relieved when our Regional Manager took action and informed me that we were going to be using the FilterShine grease filter program so the hood cleaners would not be cleaning the filters outside and continue to cause the creek and pond contamination.