GRRR- crackers and garbage disposal

[vbak]

Yesterday I emptied boxes of this and that into the disposal. When I put the Triscuits into the dang thing it blocked up. I thought fiber was good? :confused: After 4 bottles of drain opener and absolutely no progress, we had to call the plumber. :mad: This will be the most expensive Triscuits I have ever eaten! After the plumber took the pipes apart, he said it was like cement. Why did I do that ? GRRR :mad:

Vicky

[PAMMELA]

I would have done the same; I'm the type to put everything down there including egg shells and hot bacon grease!

Thanks for the warning. :)

[vbak]

Pam, I do put egg shells down the disposal and grease, too. But crackers? When we first got our disposal I put potato peels down it, and of course it blocked up, but the drain opener took care of that. I t was Christmas Eve and I was annoyed. I have always been able to clear the drain with my kitchen plunger.

Vicky

[Hammster]

I must be in the minority. I put very little down the garbage disposal. Just what might be on a plate or dish, and I'm talking a scrap or 2. Liquids, yes, most solids and greases, no. I figure that the trash can is for the solids and if I have grease that will solidify (such as bacon grease or shortening) it goes into an old coffee can until full and then into the trash. Why invite all those clogs is my thought I guess. :)

[Grace]

I agree with Hammster. I think of the disposal as a sink drain trap that I don't have to clean, not an actual garbage can. Although I do throw the odd egg shell (singular) down, and also a half lemon now and again to freshen and clean it up. But never big gobs of grease or mass amounts of food.

[emptyspool]

I had a plumber tell me what was important was to run water after using the disposal. His experience was pasta that had turned into cement, so maybe it wasn't really the triscuits but the build up that was there prior to them going in. So now when I put pasta down the drain I run the water for a good long while. And now I have a habit of turning off the disposal but letting the water continue to run every time I use it.

[vbak]

I do let the water run after disposing. I am pretty sure that I just tried to push way too much down at one time before it had a chance to 'digest'.

[hollysmom]

We have a super-duper 1 hp Sears disposal that we installed when we gutted the kitchen three years ago. It will chew up just about anything - grapefruit peels, chicken bones, dead lettuce, etc. I am very careful to add dish soap to the hot grease to break it up before sending it down there - and lots of water! Only thing that it seems to have problems with is onion peels.

SSM

[mbrogier]

I agree with Hammster. I think of the disposal as a sink drain trap that I don't have to clean, not an actual garbage can. Although I do throw the odd egg shell (singular) down, and also a half lemon now and again to freshen and clean it up. But never big gobs of grease or mass amounts of food.

I agree with Hammster and Grace. I dump most solids in the trash and use the disposal for stuff on my plates. Our house now doesn't even have a disposal.

We had a Viking disposal. That thing could have disposed of Hoffa. I've never seen anything clear trash away that quickly or efficiently. Rob was really tempted to use it as a chipper/shredder. :D

[Grace]

I have a 3/4 hp one, which is also pretty "high power". I guess most people only put in a 1/4 hp one. I told the guy in the store that I cook a lot and wanted a really good one, and he directed me to the 3/4 hp one (KitchenAid). The 1 hp one must be like Micah's Viking shredder/chipper! :D

Running water IS key, and make sure it's COLD water! Especially with the grease. It seems counterintuitive to run cold water with grease, but the instruction book and the installer both said it was very, very important not to run grease down with hot water. The cold water coagulates the grease and makes it go down I guess.

Also, my disposal runs in both directions, and changes direction every time you turn it on. So I always turn it on and off a couple times to make it run in both directions to make sure nothing is stuck. I also let it run for awhile (30 seconds maybe). I've watched my SIL with her disposal, and she turns hers on for like 3 seconds and turns it right off. That always struck me as odd. I let mine go until it sounds empty, then I let it go a little while longer and keep running water after I turn it off.

[Gumbeaux]

Running water IS key, and make sure it's COLD water!

Very true. You can have the largest, most powerful, and most expensive garbage disposer made and it will still clog if not enough water is running through it while you are grinding waste.

Crackers, Triscuits, and cereals will expand and easily clog the trap if not enough water is used. I've clogged mine with rice, potato peels, and cereal. When I pulled the trap to remove the clog I could see that the waste was completely pulverized and the reason for the clog was that there was not enough water to flush it through the pipes. I can dispose of any almost any type of food if I "feed" the disposal very slowly and allow the water to flush the pipes out before adding more waste.

[Angelina]

Crackers, Triscuits, and cereals will expand and easily clog the trap if not enough water is used.

I was wondering...under what circumstances would you throw things like that in the garbage disposal as opposed to throwing them in the garbage, let's say...what's the advantage? :)

Angela

[Gumbeaux]

I was wondering...under what circumstances would you throw things like that in the garbage disposal as opposed to throwing them in the garbage, let's say...what's the advantage? :)

Angela

That's a good question. I throw everything in the disposal that would rot in the trash, cause odors, and attract bugs.

The exceptions are: corn husks, artichokes, grease, and oyster shells. The maker of my disposer, Insinkerator, says not to put these things in the disposer.

I dispose of nut shells, bones, and fruit pits in the disposer and although it makes a loud noise, it is in no way harmful to the disposer.



.

[PAMMELA]

I was wondering...under what circumstances would you throw things like that in the garbage disposal as opposed to throwing them in the garbage, let's say...what's the advantage? :)

Angela


:) I thought that too! I would have just put them out in the trash!

[Meganator]

I was wondering...under what circumstances would you throw things like that in the garbage disposal as opposed to throwing them in the garbage, let's say...what's the advantage? :)

Angela

I put almost all food waste down the disposal except grease/fats, in order to minimize the amount I am sending to the landfill. Although I am starting to look into composting...

[Hammster]

I was wondering...under what circumstances would you throw things like that in the garbage disposal as opposed to throwing them in the garbage, let's say...what's the advantage? :)

Angela

Thanks Angela.
I was thinking of starting a new thread asking this question.

I don't understand dry foods going down the drain. They won't stink in the trash. I sort of wonder why these dry foods were being thrown away? Stale, or?

Someone mentioned putting stuff down the drain that could get stinky and attract bugs if it's in the trash. We buy those trash bags with tie tops. Our kitchen trash can is small enough that it fills up every few days and so it rarely gets stinky in the house. And no bugs have ever gotten into it in the house.

We tie up the bag and it goes into the large bin that has a lid that goes out to the curb each week. It can get stinky in there and does attract flies sometimes. And yes, sometimes we do get maggots from that. But, only in the hottest part of the summer and some bug spray stops them cold. (Maggots only in the large bin, never any bugs in the house)

It's just not worth the risk (and expense) of clogged drains for me to run everything down the drain. We have 50+ year old cast iron drains that are embedded in a concrete slab. (No crawlspace under the house) We have the whiz bang chipper shredder disposal too, and it's nice to know we have the power in case we need it, but don't need it normally.

Plus it puts more strain on the wastewater purification system that the city has to maintain and run. Breakdowns in their system results in waste going straight to the ocean. Not a good thing.

:D

[Gumbeaux]

There have been numerous studies on how garbage disposals affect the environmemt. Most of the studies show that garbage disposals have a positive, rather than a negative effect, on the environment. The article below is a summary of this.

A World of Good For The Environment

By putting an In-Sink-Erator® disposer in your kitchen, you're doing your part to help reduce a growing problem. That's because when food waste is dumped in landfills, bacteria and other harmful organisms can seep into the ground and contaminate our water.

With an In-Sink-Erator® disposer, food waste is ground into fine particles and safely flushed into your sewage system. Decades of scientific studies have shown this to be a sound ecological alternative. At wastewater treatment facilities, the food waste can be converted into useful energy, or recycled into agricultural fertilizer.

[Hammster]

There have been numerous studies on how garbage disposals affect the environmemt. Most of the studies show that garbage disposals have a positive, rather than a negative effect, on the environment. The article below is a summary of this.

A World of Good For The Environment

By putting an In-Sink-Erator® disposer in your kitchen, you're doing your part to help reduce a growing problem. That's because when food waste is dumped in landfills, bacteria and other harmful organisms can seep into the ground and contaminate our water.

With an In-Sink-Erator® disposer, food waste is ground into fine particles and safely flushed into your sewage system. Decades of scientific studies have shown this to be a sound ecological alternative. At wastewater treatment facilities, the food waste can be converted into useful energy, or recycled into agricultural fertilizer.

Hi Gumbeaux,
I respectfully disagree with this. This looks like marketing hype from Insinkerator. If I wanted to sell more garbage disposals I'd probably create the same kind of information.
While it's true that the ground up waste can be made into fertilizer and energy, the amount of energy required to do that is staggering. Also, when the waste handling system is overburdened (which happens a lot here in San Diego) raw sewage flows directly to the ocean.
I wonder about the landfill claims and the bacteria, etc leaching into water table. There are animals and plants dying everyday and decomposing and leaching down into the water table. Are they safe? Yet my garbage isn't?

I may be naive and ignorant to all the impacts and would like to learn more. Would you mind posting some of the links you found supporting the info you posted?
Thanks for the alternative view. :D

[Gumbeaux]

Hi Gumbeaux,
I respectfully disagree with this. This looks like marketing hype from Insinkerator. If I wanted to sell more garbage disposals I'd probably create the same kind of information.
While it's true that the ground up waste can be made into fertilizer and energy, the amount of energy required to do that is staggering. Also, when the waste handling system is overburdened (which happens a lot here in San Diego) raw sewage flows directly to the ocean.
I wonder about the landfill claims and the bacteria, etc leaching into water table. There are animals and plants dying everyday and decomposing and leaching down into the water table. Are they safe? Yet my garbage isn't?

I may be naive and ignorant to all the impacts and would like to learn more. Would you mind posting some of the links you found supporting the info you posted?
Thanks for the alternative view. :D

http://www.kverna.no/gamleartikler/benefitsnyc.htm

http://www.joneca.com/Wisconsin.study.pdf

http://www.ciwem.org/policy/policies/food.asp

[Diane B.]

We are older-and-wiser disposal users too. I guess our pipes are a little clogged farther down, so problems at the disposal level can impact things more than if they weren't.

The biggest things I've learned that have helped a lot have been things already mentioned... like running plenty of water (before, during, and after), and not putting certain types of things in ours.

A few other things that cause problems for us have been:

...(papery) onion skins (...never! according to the repairman)
...other very thin things ... okay if not also wide though
...lots of cooked rice --though fine if I feed it into the disposal slowly, just a bit at a time with lots of water running
......presumably this would be the same with lots of other same-size particle things (like Triscuits?), especially if not done slowly, a bit at a time

My sister once told me that it was usually fine to put anything in a disposal if you could chew it up yourself, and I think that's reasonable unless you have one of those extreme workhorse types and fairly open pipes. I think the suggestion of cold water with grease is a good one too... I do use soap with it, but warm water; don't know how quickly the grease turns to hard fat though in the system.

As for disposing of other things, we have a trash compactor and once-weekly trash pick up, so relatively-dry things all go in the compactor and get smashed totally flat (except recyclables, which go in my oven warming drawer since I don't use it much--then removed on pickup day), things that will stay wet or might stink before pickup day go in in a special open box in the freezer, and everything else goes down the disposal. We used to have a compost pile when we lived in a more rural area, but that was a lot of trouble since we had to run excess food through the blender, go out and dump in on the pile, (wash out the blender), find/cut-up/add more plant material to the pile, and turn the pile frequently... think I could handle that better with one of those turning barrel composters, in milder weather :rolleyes:


Diane B.

[Meganator]

I wonder about the landfill claims and the bacteria, etc leaching into water table. There are animals and plants dying everyday and decomposing and leaching down into the water table. Are they safe? Yet my garbage isn't?

If your groundwater is shallow enough that the soil can't filter out contaminants before they reach the water table, then there is a good chance that your groundwater isn't very good for drinking either - for a lot of reasons other than plants and animals, such as petroleum products and other chemicals.

The chemical stew created in a landfill is pretty toxic. New landfills are lined, but older ones aren't; and even lined, they can leak. Since landfills tend to be large and concentrated, the contamination caused not only by your food waste, but by all the other chemicals, diapers, etc. tossed in there (including a lot of stuff that isn't supposed to be) can cause a pretty big problem.

Miscellaneous plants and animals dying at the surface are not regulated, and probably don't need to be. However, landfills, petroleum tanks, chemical tanks, dry cleaners - most sources of potential contamination - are regulated by federal and state environmental legislation.

Your food waste isn't the main contaminant of concern in a landfill, but minimizing the total volume of waste that goes into the landfill means that it will take longer to fill up and overall fewer will be built. That is a continued protection of the groundwater in the location where the new one would be built. However, I think that the importance of some of these issues can be different, depending on where you are. Impact to surface water from the water treatment plant may be more if an issue in a coastal community than groundwater; inland, maybe vice versa. On a smaller scale, it depends on your particular wastewater treatment facilty vs. your particular landfill. Also, wastewater treatment facility overflows definitely make more news, because they are more visible. Most people don't know the environmental situation at their local landfill.

[hollysmom]

My mom always said that tossing some ice cubes down the disposal and grinding them up will help sharpen the blades - old wives tale?

SSM

[Gumbeaux]

She's close.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y7/bayoutitan/Second%20Album/Ice.jpg

[Hammster]

If your groundwater is shallow enough that the soil can't filter out contaminants before they reach the water table, then there is a good chance that your groundwater isn't very good for drinking either - for a lot of reasons other than plants and animals, such as petroleum products and other chemicals.

The chemical stew created in a landfill is pretty toxic. New landfills are lined, but older ones aren't; and even lined, they can leak. Since landfills tend to be large and concentrated, the contamination caused not only by your food waste, but by all the other chemicals, diapers, etc. tossed in there (including a lot of stuff that isn't supposed to be) can cause a pretty big problem.

Miscellaneous plants and animals dying at the surface are not regulated, and probably don't need to be. However, landfills, petroleum tanks, chemical tanks, dry cleaners - most sources of potential contamination - are regulated by federal and state environmental legislation.

Your food waste isn't the main contaminant of concern in a landfill, but minimizing the total volume of waste that goes into the landfill means that it will take longer to fill up and overall fewer will be built. That is a continued protection of the groundwater in the location where the new one would be built. However, I think that the importance of some of these issues can be different, depending on where you are. Impact to surface water from the water treatment plant may be more if an issue in a coastal community than groundwater; inland, maybe vice versa. On a smaller scale, it depends on your particular wastewater treatment facilty vs. your particular landfill. Also, wastewater treatment facility overflows definitely make more news, because they are more visible. Most people don't know the environmental situation at their local landfill.

I'm completely in agreement regarding the other things that go into landfills. But that's really outside the scope of this discussion. We are only discussing food items. I'm still gonna toss my garbage in the trash and avoid clogs and whatnot in my old and expensive to repair/unclog drains. :)