The routine maintenance on kitchen exhaust filters has remained essentially the same for over a hundred years. New innovations are now providing commercial kitchens with a greener alternative – wool. 

When choosing the right filters for your commercial hood, corrosion resistance should be a primary consideration. Between high heat, humidity, grease, air particles and cleaning chemicals – hood filters are under constant onslaught that leads to corrosion over time. Materials such as stainless or galvanized steel will resist corrosion, last longer and have to be replaced less frequently. Because they’re on the front line, traditional metal grease filters themselves pose hygiene and fire-risk issues, and must be cleaned frequently; in many cases, it’s a daily activity.

Without such routine cleaning, the system couldn’t function properly or safely, or be in compliance with applicable fire-safety regulations. Since it’s done so frequently, grease-filter cleaning is time-consuming and expensive for restaurant owners and operators. It is labour-intensive and requires large quantities of water, energy and chemicals, all of which harm the environment.

For those seeking to avoid today’s cumbersome and expensive cleaning practices, the good news is that grease-filtration technology recently introduced into the market offers real control over grease never before available to commercial kitchen operators. It comes in the form of something that’s been part of human consumption since the dawn of time – naturally bio-degradable wool.

Products that are biodegradable are part of a natural cycle. They come from nature and go back to nature, enriching the soil and nourishing new life. Products made out of synthetic fibres can take 30-40 years to degrade, contributing to the ever-increasing piles of waste in landfills. Look at the rate that wool biodegrades versus polyester for example:

After only 4 months buried in soil, wool has almost completely degraded into the soil.
Polyester…no change.

Thank you to our friends at Nagao Shoji, an innovative textile business in Japan, who shared these results with The Campaign for Wool. 

Because it naturally degrades in a fraction of that time, wool is the obvious choice for anyone concerned about the health of our planet.

Disposable Kitchen Grease Filters Made from 100% Wool

Being made of 100% wool, Shepherd Filters are all-natural and carbon-neutral. They also have the added advantage of being fully bio-degradable. So is the grease, which is protein-based and rich in nitrogen and sulphur. Discarded wool filters easily break down in landfills; landfills welcome highly biodegradable content.

With wool, grease first adheres to the wool fibres, “wicking” along with the entire fibre, due to the natural attraction of the wool, instead of adhering to already accumulated grease. This prevents the space between the fibres from being prematurely filled with grease adhering to existing grease deposits (grease doesn’t build on grease, it builds on the fibres). The result: air flow is maintained for longer periods and grease accumulation adheres evenly and tightly to the fibres.

Shepherd Filters capture up to 98% of airborne grease before it has the chance to reach the kitchen exhaust ventilation system. As the vast majority of grease is prevented from building up inside the hood system, routine duct cleaning costs are also reduced and the load on vital equipment such as the fan is minimised, ensuring that your system has a long life.

If you want to learn more about the benefits of wool in the kitchen, then please contact us or visit our FAQs page.