# Garbage Disposal Units a US thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2009, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223 "2009-12-31T20:44:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/21 "2010-01-01T02:55:31Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I have one in my apartment in Kansas City and don’t have one in my apartment in Chicago - and I miss having one. By putting all the waste food in the disposal, my trash and recyclables are that much cleaner. As I live alone in my Kansas City apartment, I only generate enough trash for one small bag a week - which means that the bag sits in the bin for a week. Here in Toronto, single-family residences and many businesses put all their ‘organics’ in green bins which go to the city composting system, or they compost it themselves. It is apartment dwellers that tend to mix organics in with garbage, because older apartment buildings aren’t really set up for recycling–and since 50% of Toronto households live in apartments, that is still a problem. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/22 "2010-01-01T03:05:22Z")
> [@boytyperanma](#): > > I think he’s referring to the standard set up of two sinks one of which has a garbage disposal. > > Garbage disposals are more an urban thing then an American thing. In rural houses you don’t see them. If you live in the country you can throw stuff that goes in the urban folks garbage disposals out in your yard for compost. Also garbage disposals are very bad for septic systems that most rural homes have. If you are on a municipal sewer system it is a non issue and just a convenience. I don’t think that it’s that big of a deal for those of us on septic systems. But then I was always taught to just use it for the little bit of stuff that ends up in the sink. I’ve never used it to dispose of major food waste. Can’t imagine anyone would. Don’t composting piles attract a lot of critters? I wouldn’t dare where I live. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/23 "2010-01-01T03:06:26Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Here in Toronto, single-family residences and many businesses put all their ‘organics’ in green bins which go to the city composting system, or they compost it themselves. It is apartment dwellers that tend to mix organics in with garbage, because older apartment buildings aren’t really set up for recycling–and since 50% of Toronto households live in apartments, that is still a problem. Neither Kansas City or Chicago have compost recycling - only paper, plastic and aluminum cans. So my choices are: [ol] [li]Put in in the bin where it can rot.[/li][li]Put it in a bag outside, where the opossums and wild cats can get at it.[/li][li]Put grind it up and put it in the sewage, where it will wind up as fertilizer from the city sewage treatment plant.[/li][/ol] ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/24 "2010-01-01T03:20:33Z")
Yes, I was referring to the dual sink/one disposal setup, which seems to be the one I see most often. I’ve seen it used at least a couple of times as a horror prop in movies – y’know, forcing someone’s hand down it and turning it on, or you’ll sometimes see it in a romantic comedy where a husband loses a wedding ring down it and tries to fish it out, that sort of thing. Does it have anything to do with the sewage infrastructure, perhaps? Or maybe it just took off in the US and never really saw a great deal of introduction elsewhere. For what it’s worth I’ve never seen them in Canadian Tires here in the Toronto area, nor anywhere else in any other stores, for that matter. I’ve always thought that if I bought a house I’d love to have such a disposal system, but I can’t even think where I’d get one around here, so that’s why I’ve always wondered what the deal was with them in the US and why I never seem to see any here. ---
**Author:** ![meflin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecb155/32.png) [@meflin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meflin)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/25 "2010-01-01T03:59:30Z")
> [@mecaenas](#): > > I haven’t seen a lot of them in Australia. > > What are they for? Does it use a lot of water? Where does the waste go? Do they need a lot of maintenance? Are they expensive? How is it easier than tossing the rubbish in the bin? Disposals grind up the food bits that end up in down the drain .. mostly small stuff. You do need to run water while you run them for 15-60 seconds so there is some waste of water. They are just about maintenance free, a few citrus peals a year to make them smell fresh. Common units are $50-$150 USD. Its easier to put the junk that wont fall off the stopper thingy into the water stream and grind it up. A lot of people wash stuff out of dishes into as well. With a typical 2 sink system, the left sink has a drain and catcher, the right sink has a disposal and no catcher. Meflin ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/26 "2010-01-01T04:06:16Z")
We don’t have them here, and I’m told that’s because of the lack of city sewer/water. We have wells and septic tanks, and one of the two (I assume the septic tank) disallows their practical use. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/27 "2010-01-01T04:15:20Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > Does it have anything to do with the sewage infrastructure, perhaps? Or maybe it just took off in the US and never really saw a great deal of introduction elsewhere. For what it’s worth I’ve never seen them in Canadian Tires here in the Toronto area, nor anywhere else in any other stores, for that matter. I’ve always thought that if I bought a house I’d love to have such a disposal system, but I can’t even think where I’d get one around here, so that’s why I’ve always wondered what the deal was with them in the US and why I never seem to see any here. Digging around on the city of Toronto’s website, I found this: > [@](#): > > Can my building install a garburator in tenant units to help manage organic waste? > Garburator, also called garbage grinders, are prohibited in areas of the City served by combined sewers under the Sewer Use By-law (Municipal Code, Chapter 681-10,Section E). To find out if your building is on a combined sewer, call 416-338-8888. > > In addition, the City has studied the use of garburator and found them to be an expensive way to treat organic waste, both for owners and the City. More solids in the pipes lead to clogging and an increase in service calls, and more solids in the sewage system mean more blockages. The Green Bin Program, which is expected to be launched in apartments and condominiums as soon as adequate processing capacity is identified, will provide a much more effective way for managing organic waste. So it would seem that they are discouraged. (Garburator is the common term here; I believe it’s a trade name. ) ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/28 "2010-01-01T04:39:43Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > We don’t have them here, and I’m told that’s because of the lack of city sewer/water. We have wells and septic tanks, and one of the two (I assume the septic tank) disallows their practical use. I am just a little south of you with a septic tank and we do use them. All houses in my town have septic tanks and we still have garbage disposals. I have heard the warnings but we don’t flush all of our trash down the sink either and it isn’t a big deal. The septic tank still has to be pumped every once in a while anyway. It is just food bits. It is going down the drain whether you eat it or not. ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/29 "2010-01-01T05:29:15Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > So it would seem that they are discouraged. (Garburator is the common term here; I believe it’s a trade name. ) So legally it’s a sewage issue, but environmentally it’s an efficiency issue. At least in certain parts of Toronto. I guess that’s why you can’t really get them easily (at all?) around the GTA. However, it’s not strictly verboten as long as you live in an area not served by a combined sewer system. Good to know. Also, “Garburator?” What a silly name. If you’re going to give something a name that’s a clever play on words, you should really make sure the thing your brand name is a play on has at least some functional or conceptual relation to your thing, even if it’s a few degrees removed. Carburetors and garbage disposal units have nothing in common. I mean, okay, maybe the drain going into the grinder kinda-sorta looks like a carb’s venturi. But then so does Rush Limbaugh’s pie hole. [sub]Too soon?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/30 "2010-01-01T05:51:10Z")
We have one in our current house - it’s the first one I’ve ever seen in this country. Our next house probably won’t have one, and I can’t say I’ll really care much. We do use it a bit, but it seems like an awful lot of machinery for not very much saved effort. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/31 "2010-01-01T06:09:59Z")
They don’t exist in Israel. In fact, the guys who do the subtitles on TV have a hard time translating the _term_. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/32 "2010-01-01T06:46:58Z")
What Alessan said, but for Spain. I’ve had people ask me how come Americans are sometimes shown throwing trash into the sink and the sink makes noise (this seems to come up more often in reality shows than other media); the general reaction when I explain is the same one I had when I first encountered one: “isn’t that dangerous? and what is it supposed to achieve anyway?” The biggest items can’t go into the disposal. I imagine they would make a lot more sense if you were self-composting your organics, but if you’re putting the trash out? I’ve never been in a place where I had to pay for garbage disposal based on the volume of the potato peels. Nowadays at least I can tell people “it’s just one of those little differences.” (Seriously, that line is great at cutting through “but I don’t understand why would they do that!”). ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/33 "2010-01-01T09:50:27Z")
A good garbage disposal has just about the same efficiency at rendering food into a moist waste slurry as the average human being. If the sewage system can handle feces and toilet paper, it will handle the output of a garbage disposal. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/34 "2010-01-01T12:44:57Z")
Never seen them in German households, either, and the common reaction, like Nava, is “Whatever for?” It’s just additional water and electricty to run them, and a thing that can go broke or clogged up, when it’s just a moment’s time to scrape the food stuff into the bin for organic waste (collected by our city for the main compost heaps) or in the general waste bin. Since you have to take out the rest of the trash anyway - anything that doesn’t fit down the garbage disposal - why risk clogging up the water pipes? As for compost heaps attracting animals: in the city, the bigger problems are rats going after foodstuff, which is why the city recommends to not leave any food, even spoiled one, lying unsecured. But the big trash cans can’t be opened by rats. I don’t know what the city does to keep herbivores away from the compost heaps - maybe wire fencing. But meat and bread don’t belong on the compost pile. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/35 "2010-01-01T13:11:33Z")
I have never seen one in the UK. My (American) house has one and I hardly ever use it - it seems pretty pointless. I can scrape food waste into the trash quicker than dumping it into the sink and sloshing it down the disposal. ---
**Author:** ![Oglomott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oglomott/32/3543_2.png) [@Oglomott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oglomott)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/36 "2010-01-01T13:57:07Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > I have never seen one in the UK. My (American) house has one and I hardly ever use it - it seems pretty pointless. I can scrape food waste into the trash quicker than dumping it into the sink and sloshing it down the disposal. I have one, and use it a lot. Sure, you can just put the waste in the trash, but that just takes up more room in the trash, and then it can start to smell, especially in the summer. Then when you put it out at the curb for garbage collection, if it’s full of food, especially smelly food, then cats, dogs, possums, raccoons, and whatever other animals get a whiff of it will get at it and scatter it all over the yard and in the street. Even if you put it in a can with a cover, they will often knock the can down so the lid pops off and get to it anyway. As for composting, we don’t have that here. And like someone else already said, that would probably attract animals too. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/37 "2010-01-01T15:33:46Z")
I’ve never come across one in any house I’ve stayed in in South Africa. ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/38 "2010-01-01T16:00:07Z")
> [@Oglomott](#): > > I have one, and use it a lot. Sure, you can just put the waste in the trash, but that just takes up more room in the trash, and then it can start to smell, especially in the summer. Then when you put it out at the curb for garbage collection, if it’s full of food, especially smelly food, then cats, dogs, possums, raccoons, and whatever other animals get a whiff of it will get at it and scatter it all over the yard and in the street. Even if you put it in a can with a cover, they will often knock the can down so the lid pops off and get to it anyway. > > As for composting, we don’t have that here. And like someone else already said, that would probably attract animals too. You don’t have trash cans/bins, made from sturdy plastic or metal? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/39 "2010-01-01T16:09:39Z")
In some locations in the US, particularly suburbs, people just put plastic bags of trash on the curb for pickup. Larger cities are more likely to have rules about this, resulting in more heavy plastic or metal bins. Raccoons are an indigenous form of wild life in North America that has learned to operate doors and latches. They are difficult to thwart, and once they get into the garbage and scatter it, it’s a free buffet for everyone. And out where my in-laws live they have black bears. They aren’t as dexterous as the raccoons, but given their raw strength, they don’t need to be. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2010, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223/40 "2010-01-01T16:43:37Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > So legally it’s a sewage issue, but environmentally it’s an efficiency issue. At least in certain parts of Toronto. I guess that’s why you can’t really get them easily (at all?) around the GTA. However, it’s not strictly verboten as long as you live in an area not served by a combined sewer system. Good to know. > > Also, “Garburator?” What a silly name. If you’re going to give something a name that’s a clever play on words, you should really make sure the thing your brand name is a play on has at least some functional or conceptual relation to your thing, even if it’s a few degrees removed. I just located several units on the Canadian Tire website. The generic name is “garbage disposals” and they’re found under “Kitchen & Bath, Plumbing”. The brand name is “Insinkerator”. [http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/8/KitchenBath/Plumbing/GarbageDisposals.jsp](http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/8/KitchenBath/Plumbing/GarbageDisposals.jsp) Maybe that link will work… Canadian Tire, like many stores, has this annoying habit of asking for your postal code before it will show you anything. (I think they set a cookie in your browser afterwards to remember it…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/garbage-disposal-units-a-us-thing/523223.md?page=3)