Every so often, I see in passing, references to “garbage disposal units”. These are evidently considered so ubiquitous among the people who have them that they are never actually described, but they appear to be a piece of machinery that sits in your sink and chews up food scraps, and are common in the US.
What are these things? Why would you have one rather than just a rubbish bin? (which presumably you need anyway, for the rest of the rubbish) Does every house in the US have one? Any other countries have them, or is it just the US? And if so, why?
I just bought one today, funnily enough! So at least one household in the UK has one. They are not common here however, we don’t know anyone else who has one, although there undoubtedly must be some.
My wife is American, she says that there they are far more commonplace, pretty much all new build houses will have them (in the Southern US anyway).
As to what they are for… well, good question. She says they are good for disposing of organic waste such as leftover foodstuffs, potato peelings, etc etc. Chicken bones as well, I understand. According to the blurb which came with it, it is most useful for foodstuffs which will putresce rather than compost. The material is finely ground and flushed away with the waste water.
They are exactly as you suspected and and are pretty ubiquious in the US. There are a number of reasons why this might be. It reduces waste. It reduces the amount of rotting waste in the bin. It’s easy to use.
I give you the In-Sink-Erator, probably the most common brand of disposer in the U.S. I don’t know if most homes have them, but they are very, very common, indeed.
Why have one? It means that the stuff that might get rotten and smelly doesn’t have to go into the trash bin. You can peel vegetables over the sink, push the peelings down the drain, turn on the water, and hit the switch. Hey, presto, the stuff gets ground up and washed away. Ditto for things like grapefruit and melon rinds, bones, etc. In short, anything organic.
You generally wouldn’t use one if you had a septic tank, since adding more organic stuff to a septic system might just overload it, but if you’re connected to a municipal sewer system, it’s no problem.
I’m intrigued - does it really not add to the load for the sewerage system? Or are American treatment plants built to expect such ‘input’, in a way that European ones are not?
IANASE (Sanitation Engineeer) but it’s my understanding that it’s the particle size making it a bad idea, not the organic load, per se. They don’t grind up all that fine, and it can clog the holes in your leach line.
We do. I’ve lived in 6 different houses/apartments that I’m old enough to remember and never have had a garbage disposal. In fact, my late grandfather is the only person I can think of who had one; not even my best friend’s parents who redid their kitchen a couple of years ago have one. I find it suprising that people are saying they’re super common…
I’ve seen them a few times, mostly in luxury or well-off places (my cousin’s place in Coquitlam, for instance) but I wouldn’t describe them as ‘usual’. They have a kind of retro-'70s-suburban-luxury air to them. The common Canadian name is Garburator.
What with the rise of city recycling and composting programs (especially in the Toronto area), I get the impression that they are not favoured by city planners here.
The only person I know who doesn’t have one is my sister, whose house is on a septic system. In this area (No. VA), you’d be hard-pressed to find a house built within the last 30 years without one, especially since a perfectly serviceable unit can be had for less than $100. It’s hardly a luxury item.
I believe you’ve hit the nail on the head - American municipal waste systems are robust enough to handle the extra load.
Garbage disposals are as common as sinks in the U.S. They’re also a very bad idea. Most people don’t understand that you can’t just throw anything in them such as grease, chicken bones, meat, leftover spaghetti, etc. In fact, throwing anything in your sink drain that isn’t water is a poor choice. Nor do most people understand that one must run copious amounts of hot water after the debris to make sure it clears your laterals. If your line becomes clogged with coagulated grease and food, it’s on YOUR nickel to fix it. If it’s downstream in the city utility’s pipes, it’s belongs to them.
Do yourself a favor and return the damn thing now. Trash is for the landfill, not the sanitary sewer.
Not too common around here. I know two people (my grandmother and one girlfriend) who have them. I really, really, like them. Beyond the ease of peeling vegetables and scraping and rinsing plates in one spot, they’re also a quick was to deodorize the whole kitchen. Is the place a little funky? Through a few citrus peels in the disposal! Yum! I wish we had one, but we’re not allowed to put such things in the building. There’s also no icky fishing out bits of food from dirty dishwater and emptying the drain debris catcher thingy.
And yes, if and when I do have a yard, I compost. There’s no room for compost in our itty-bitty apartment, and I have nothing growing to put it on.
::snaps fingers:: I think you’ve nailed why they’re common where you are, but not common at all here - a great many towns in this area do not have city septic. All the houses (and apartment complexes) have their own septic tanks, and most have their own wells rather than city water as well. I know our town doesn’t have any water or septic services at all.
A garbage disposal unit’s job is to force sink-water down the drain. The intended usage is to force drainage of sink-water contaminated with soft food or small amounts of fibrous or hard food. (For example, dishes covered with uneaten mashed potatoes and a few green beans would be OK).
Contrary to popular belief, you aren’t supposed to rely on your garbage disposal to chop food. They aren’t terribly good at food-chopping. Fibrous material like carrot peelings will easily clog the impeller, forcing you to learn all of this the hard way (like I did). Rely on your garbage disposal ONLY to force sink water with soft food particles down the drain.
Sink disposal units are bad for the water treatment system in so many ways. They introduce excess loads of minerals, organics, and BOD (biological oxygen demand) into the water treatment system.
Nonsense. A 1 horsepower In-Sink-Erator will consume small tree limbs. A garbage disposal is supposed to chop food. That’s what they’re designed to do. The smaller ones are underpowered, and prone to jamming, but the larger ones do what they’re supposed to.
::blinks::. My parents have always had an insinkerator in their kitchens. We’ve got one at work in the kitchen. I didn’t think they were that uncommon in Australia.
I don’t have one but I’d like one for uncompostable waste in the Q summer time.
