Do people really save much quantity by using a garbage disposal? I don’t use it much, but if I did I don’t think it would save more than 5% of my waste. We eat what we cook - there is little waste. What organic waste we have will mostly not go down the unit anyway - bones, fish skins, potato/squash peelings.
Well, if you don’t get garbage service, and bears are common, a garbage disposal is pretty much a must.
We typically take the trash in to the transfer station about twice a month. In the winter it’s not to bad because we keep it in the shed, and it rarely gets above freezing for about 6 months. It freezes up real good.
That’s the plan for the summer too. But the bears are out. I’ve replaced my shed door twice. I’m taking a new tactic in the summer and spreading crushed mothballs around the shed door.
The garbage disposal really helps with the little bit of food waste that we would rather not put in the trash.
Yeah, a lot of the stinky stuff. The only thing that comes to mind that I don’t put down are egg shells (not too stinky), bones (need special care not to be stinky), and corn husks (don’t get stinky). Why won’t you dispose fish skins (are you talking shark?) and potato skins? My God, that’s what disposals were created for! Okay, you say they won’t go down; I guess the question is, why not? I don’t have an issue with them.
Another thing to keep out of disposals: raw chicken skin or fat. In fact, any raw animal product is a likely source of disposal woes.
Oh, and those yellow plastic miniature corn cobs with the steel prongs that you stick into cobs of corn…if you are having corn on the cob for dinner, count the little buggers and make sure they are all accounted for before turning on the disposal.
I once attempted potato peelings. That resulted in the disposal blocking and barfing foul water all over the floor. After having the unit repaired, I was told that they were not designed for quantities of solid like that. I want fish skins out of the house immediately so they go straight in the trash - I don’t want them stinking up the kitchen by macerating them.
In one town here in Connecticut, that’s exactly what they did. Garbage disposals were banned because the wastewater treatment plant did not have sufficient capacity, and the they were trying to hold off on a multi-million dollar upgrade.
Anyway, when a house was sold, it had to be inspected to make sure that a garbage disposal was not present. If one was present, it had to be removed. They also had a public relations campaign telling people the reasons for the ban, and that the town was being fined for permit violations.
We have a septic system at my house, and I wouldn’t even consider installing one.
Main line sewers and sewage pumps clog all the time. The worst offenders are foods (especially fats, oils, and grease), and trash.
When was this? I’ve live in CT my whole life (28) and I’ve never heard this and I’ve had a gargbage disposal in every home I lived in.
It wasn’t the whole state, just one town (Hamden). This was about six years ago.
Subsequently, the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority was created, of which Hamden is a member. The GNHWPCA has its own sewer ordinances, and it took over all of the sewers and wastewater treatment plants in the region. Currently, the GNHWPCA does not prohibit garbage grinders, but has strict controls on their use.
From their sewer ordinance (pdf):