Garbage Disposals???

So tell me- what is and is not supposed to go down a garbage disposal?

Growing up, one always had to put things in the trash. Everywhere I've lived for the last several years comes with a disposal- and I've gotten more and more lazy about pulling things out of the sink.

Tonight I made dinner and put beet skins and ends, shallot skins and ends, and egg shells down the disposal. Well they made it through the disposal, but completely plugged up the pipe. Both sides of the double sink were completely plugged (in fact when I would turn on the disposal, it would shoot everything from that side of the sink up through the other sink, spraying debris all over the dishes that were drying on that side). Eventually I figured out how to open the bottom of the pipe and was eventually able to clean up the mess and now I have a functioning sink again.

Initially I was thinking the egg shells were where I went wrong, but it seemed like the shallot skins were doing more of the plugging. Any thoughts?

Fingers






Hehehee..... sorry :D

I say the shallot skins (anything that isn't "crisp" won't grind). Eggshells are actually supposed to be good for the dispos-alls, they help sharpen the blade.

That said, I don't use mine. "Up north," I compost; "down south," it just jams every single time I use the stupid thing. Supposedly there's a net environmental benefit to using them, but I think that may be only in places where water is plentiful. You have to use a LOT of water and only run one thing down it at a time.

Drain screens are your friend :)

Never, ever put raw chicken skin through a garbage disposal. It gets all stringy and caught up in the mechanism. It then decomposes and STINKS like no other....:eek:

Why not just keep an old coffee can or similar container on your counter top for items like that?

Coffee grounds and eggshells are especially good as compost.
Not chicken skin or meat, though.

Disposers don't last forever. The one at my old house "appeared" and "sounded like" it was grinding up food... and it was. Sort of. But it was not grinding it up enough to be washed away, and it accumulated about 50' away in the pipes running thru the basement ceiling. It took two plumber's visits to diagnose this, AND a new disposer.... So if your's is more than say 10 years old, I'd spring for a new one, which is cheaper than 2 plumbers visits, esp if you can install it yourself.

My dad one time tried to put lobster shells down my garbage disposal! Boy, did that NOT work! And he was a plumber!!! On the positive side, tho', he made sure I was well supplied with tools when I bought my townhouse...and he knew how to put them to use to repair the damage!! :eek::rolleyes:

I have a friend who works for the public works department in her town, and rails incessantly against garbage disposals. She says most sewage treatment facilities are optimized to treat human waste and not kitchen scraps.

Except for the occasional egg shells (which, this time of year, are best dried, crushed, and added to your bird seed to supplement the calcium for egg-laying wild birds), nothing really goes down our disposals except "mistakes". Stinky trash - chicken bones, fat/gristle - goes in a baggie in the freezer until trash day. Spent oil, liquid fats, go in an empty jar or can under the sink and discarded when full. I wish I could say I was a better composter. Bunny poo (which is GREAT for the garden) and old hay gets composted, but not much else sadly.

It doesn't sound like you put anything bad in it, just be sure to feed it slowly and run water while you do it and everything should be fine.

there are a few things which I will never (again :eek: ) put down my disposal..... the green ends of leeks are bad, bad, bad, as is even a small quantity of seaweed (I use sheets in broth for miso soup), but I can plug it up even with safe stuff if I try to feed it too fast. Onion and shallot type skins will really only grind up if something else goes in with them and dense things like potato peelings have to go in quite slowly.

About 10 years ago, when my kitchen sink was clogged, a plumber told me not to run vegetables through the disposal. Since I'm a vegetarian, that's pretty much all I ever put in it, and I thought what the hell good is it if you can't put vegetables in it.

But since then, I only put soft things like soup and cooked vegetables in the disposal, and I've not had another clog. Any raw vegetable scraps go in the trash. Can't compost because there are too many rats around.:(

I've had bad luck putting onion skins (or shallot skins) down the disposal. Our last plug was two Christmas Eves ago - big fun in the snap house, washing dishes in the laundry tub.

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Originally Posted by Andrea

Fingers

Hehehee..... sorry :D

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OMG, that is always in the back of my mind. :eek: But disposals wear out and not only is compost great for a garden and the planet and so on but saves wear and tear on the disposal.

Growing up we composted. It just makes sense. We pay for produce including parts we don't eat,we pay to have the waste disposed of, then we pay for soil amendment and compost :rolleyes:

It's best not to put any protein in, attracts critters. :rolleyes:

I've replaced the plumbing here twice, snaked it out and replaced some pipes, then later the sink backed up and replaced plumbing to the outside, then the disposal died.

Since I'm remodeling ah heck, take the whole blasted thing out. :mad:

The people I bought from fried everything in lard :eek: I saw the pipes when the first plumber took them out. :eek:

I'd hate to see their arteries :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by 7rider

egg shells (which, this time of year, are best dried, crushed, and added to your bird seed to supplement the calcium for egg-laying wild birds)=

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This is cool, what a great idea!

I have a brand new heavy duty Insinkerator brand disposal. It's no pansy. It can grind up anything, and I run it while I rinse the sink, thereby using the water twice (water is not an issue here...except for too much of it at present). It does say to avoid stringy vegetables, like celery. But do put the bones and eggshells in it. I don't compost because I don't garden, (ever since youth baseball took over my springs) and disposals are supposed to be eco-friendly.

I'm fascinated that sewer treatment facilities don't take into account garbage disposals....I really doubt it, having worked for a city water utility. At least where I live, I know they prepare for every eventuality. But isn't human waste just vegetables that went through prior processing?

Karen

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

isn't human waste just vegetables that went through prior processing?

Karen

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ewww :rolleyes: ;) LOL

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

But isn't human waste just vegetables that went through prior processing?

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Not unless your vegetables contain E. coli O157:H7 :eek:

(a little hijack)Zen, how long are you going to make us keep watching that space? back to the disussion, I can personally attest that coffee grounds and any thin kind of peels (carrot,potato,apple etc) will not be properly liquified by the disposal and will go through and quite possibly glop up your drain and cost you a plumber's visit. Tokie

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Originally Posted by Tokie

(a little hijack)Zen, how long are you going to make us keep watching that space?

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about a week, keep watching!:D

They've outlawed garbage disposals in Raleigh, NC (plus, apparently they had already changed the regulations to say that you could only put soap and water down the pipes). Seems people 1) waste water and 2) put too much grease down them. Grease SHOULD NEVER go down a pipe.

Onions and pumpkin parts are particularly bad. Lemon peels are nice - they make the house smell good. Supposedly ice sharpens them too....

The only thing that ends up in my garbage disposal is the crumbs I dust off the plates before putting them in the dishwasher. I put most everything else in the garbage. Kali loves potato peelings so she gets to enjoy snacks when I'm in the kitchen. If you've ever had to clean a stopped up disposal, you'll not soon forget it. :eek:

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Originally Posted by Tuckervill

I have a brand new heavy duty Insinkerator brand disposal. It's no pansy.

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ok, so, are you calling my disposal a wimp :p :rolleyes: ;)

I must defend the honor of my Legend Series Wasteking Insinkerator 9980

"of course, you know this means war"
~ bugs bunny

My brother the master plumber thinks garbage disposals are evil, though profitable. I don't have one since he plumbed my house.

My friend puts ice cubes in his disposal every week or so to break up whatever might be down there still.

I dislike disposals. I never had one before now, but my apartment that I've been in since August has one. My condo that I will move into in June does not.

I compost my fruit and veggie scraps--since I live in an apartment, I freeze them and bring them to a friend's house for composting. Yeah, I'm a compost geek, and proud of it.

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Originally Posted by Trek420

;)

Legend Series Wasteking Insinkerator 9980

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You know a man came up with that name.

Wasteking ...:p :D

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Originally Posted by 7rider

Except for the occasional egg shells (which, this time of year, are best dried, crushed, and added to your bird seed to supplement the calcium for egg-laying wild birds

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Definitely not a good idea around here- last summer some of my neighbors had some un-invited bear visits to their bird feeders (the bear could climb up an outside wall to the balcony, and returned a few weeks later to the same condo units, even after the bird seed had been removed).

I know I should compost- I don't have a garden, but I could dump the stuff out back pretty easily- hmmm.

Thanks for all the comments- in retrospect I suspect I tried to jam too much stuff down all at once.

I've had bad luck with just about any type of vegetable skin (apple, carrot, onion). Shot glasses are a bad idea too. Otherwise, I've been able to put just about anything down mine. I even put in chicken bones--otherwise my garbage hound of a dog knocks over the garbage can and digs them out.

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Originally Posted by anakiwa

I know I should compost- I don't have a garden, but I could dump the stuff out back pretty easily- hmmm.

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You live in Vermont and you don't compost??? I thought for sure that was a law up there :rolleyes:

I luv my compost!

+1 for composting my family keeps an old plastic ice cream bucket around. the plastic top helps keep odors a way and they are easy to rinse. see it even reuses old things. you can keep it in the second basin of the sink or below in another catch all tub.


hmm I've never worried about how birds get Calcium, I've been so worried about mu own.

Moderately off-topic (but, you know, hey), disposals and college students DO NOT MIX. My husband's second roommate never really learned to clean up after himself: he'd leave dishes all over the place, pans on the stove. One day the kitchen really stank. Husband took out the trash. Cleaned out the fridge. Did the dishes. Still stank. Moved the stand-alone cabinet to look for dead rodents (none). Finally, the disposal came to mind. I made him look. Sure enough: compost. We opened the window, turned the water on high, hit the disposal switch. Whew! What a smell! Thankfully, with the food gone, the smell left in minutes.

We figure the roommate had never used a disposal before, that his parents would notice the food down the sink and turn it on for him.