New: the free 12-step MobCater startup guide is now in the app. Open the app →

How Do I Dispose of Waste Water From a Catering Trailer?

by Fizz
(Lincs)

Mustard yellow twin-axle catering trailer with a waste water container by the drawbar

Mustard yellow twin-axle catering trailer with a waste water container by the drawbar

Hi,
I've sorted out general waste but am struggling to find out the best way to dispose of waste water. I will have a waste water tank. Can anyone recommend a company that will collect and dispose of this or is there another option? Thanks.

Comments for How Do I Dispose of Waste Water From a Catering Trailer?

Average Rating starstarstarstarstar

Click here to add your own comments

Aug 18, 2026
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		How Do I Dispose of Waste Water From a Catering Trailer?
by: MobCater

Hi Fizz, this is one of those jobs nobody warns you about when you are buying the trailer, and then it turns into a weekly headache once you are actually trading.

The first thing to get straight is where that water must never go. Your washing up water counts as commercial waste water, and tipping it down a roadside gully, a car park drain or onto a grass verge is a pollution offence. Those drains usually run straight to a watercourse rather than to a treatment works, so you are putting greasy sink water into a stream. It is the mistake that gets traders reported, and councils do act on it, because someone always sees you do it.

What you are looking for is a foul drain, the same one your toilet at home runs into. For the volumes a single trailer produces, most traders take the tank home at the end of the day and empty it into their own foul drain or down the toilet. Anglian Water covers your part of Lincolnshire, and a call to their trade effluent team will tell you whether they are happy with that for your volumes. Get the answer in writing if you can. It costs you nothing and it settles the question for good.

If you are producing more than that, or you are away at events for days at a time, a licensed waste contractor is the answer you were after. They will collect from a tank or an IBC and give you a waste transfer note each time, and you need to keep those. Check the Environment Agency's public register of registered waste carriers rather than taking someone's word for it, because the duty of care sits with you, not with the bloke who took it away.

Two practical things that will save you grief. Fit a strainer and a small grease trap before the tank, because fat is what turns waste water into a blocked, stinking problem, and a trap costs less than one emergency call out. And keep your used cooking oil completely separate in its own sealed container for a registered oil recycler. Oil should never go near the waste tank.

One last thing worth doing before you book an event. Ask the organiser where their grey water point is. A good one will tell you straight away. If they cannot answer that question, it tells you something about how the rest of the event will be run.

Keep going

David

Disclaimer: Waste water rules are enforced by your water company and the Environment Agency, and what is acceptable depends on your volumes and where you trade. Always check with your local water authority before you settle on a disposal method.

Try the free MobCater App, our startup checklist and guide walks you through every step: https://www.mobcater.co.uk/mobile-catering.html

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Catering Trailer Cooking Equipment.

Your first trading day is closer than you think

Start free today with the 12-step guide, and skip the trial and error most new caterers learn the hard way.

Start the free 12-step guide