I wouldn't say that nobody uses them. I had one in my old kitchen and loved it. The only reason I'm not putting one in my new kitchen is because we're on septic and food now goes in the garbage instead of down a disposal. Seemed really unsanitary to mash food down in a trash compactor. Plus we take our kitchen garbage out daily now.

Here is what I see are things to do. 1. most organics: down the drain or into compost holding bin. Move to the big compost. 2. most hard matter: sort and recycle. Store near the garage. 3. collect the rest in a temporary holding bin, and remove it to another place. By removing garbage, as often as you could imagine, you keep kitchen air drier and cleaner than otherwise. adamrainoff, to follow up on billl's thoughts, perhaps a good part of the solution will be clearer after thinking about ways to get trash out of the kitchen more often. No need to store it. Is this ok? I too was bothered when I found out there was no advanced solution for garbage. The final frontier: garbage management systems. What else can you do with garbage except manage it? in the 100 year forecast from a garbage management systems perspective i see people returning more and more containers, and one incentive could be the dollar they get for each of those containers made for this high value return system. Scavengers would love the dollar return too, and scavenging is a fine activity for many. Consumers could pay $1.10 at purchase and get $1 back at return; the ten cents funds the container management and handling system. -- Spendy high end kitchen cabinet manufacturers also have nothing specifically high end or different for garbage. High end manufacturers of kitchen system HARDWARE offer products in the thousands; none have anything elaborate for garbage. Plastic will do. Franke Kitchen Systems Inc, a hundred year old company; Blum (the company we all refer to because of its kitchen systems hardware like drawer glides and liftup springs for wall cabinets); Hettich, another European hardware company; What I'm saying is that millions of "Green" ecologically minded Europeans have nothing new to show us in terms of trash handling and management PRODUCTS. That's because it all about habits, not products that you buy and install. -- A plastic bin inside an expensive cabinet? "...I don't like that idea at all..." One solution is to remember that the cabinet and drawers are not expensive, so the dichotomy is not that great. (. : - ) . ) --

I have to say that when I had a group of young (that is, younger than me) friends over and they saw our freestanding trash compactor, they laughed and said they hadn't seen one since they were kids. Thanks! In any case, we replaced it with trash cans under the sink when we did the reno. Our small kitchen didn't have space for a pullout or we might have gone that way. How many people live in your house? When all 3 kids were growing up, the trash compactor was marvelous. When it got to be just the 2 of us, it could take 3 weeks to fill. We made separate trash runs for smelly things like meat trays. If you have a houseful of people, I say replace it until you do your reno and then reevaluate. You're unlikely to be sorry you have it, and it's so much easier not trying to blend a new element into a cabinet run that you're going to replace anyway.

Sorry to bump this after so much time. Here's a picture of the trash compactor. This is the pull out trash/recycling system that I want. http://www.pullsdirect.com/rev-a-shelf-5349-2150dm-2-5349-series-double-50-quart-pull-out-waste-container-with-soft-close-slides/p1573591. It says that it fits in a 15 inch width cabinet. It took me this long to contact a few custom cabinet makers in my area. 2 of them have told me that to replace the trash compactor with the double pull out trash/recycling that I want, I would need to not only have a cabinet door/face, but also they'd need to create a cabinet box and a frame too. However, by doing this, the width of the side of the cabinet box would mean that they wouldn't be able to put in the pull-out that I want, which needs a width of 14.8 inches (the trash compactor is 15 inches), so I'd need to select a different one, which would have a much smaller bin size. The one I want has 2 50 quart bins, and I would have to go down to 2 27 quart bins, I think, to get it to fit, which is a big difference. I'm also talking to a third custom cabinet guy who said that there might be a way to be able to put in a "floor" to where the trash compactor was, so he could install the double pull out I want (which is bottom mounted, not side mounted) without any sides, and then put some type of frame at the top only, so something that the cabinet door could rest against while closed, but said he'd have to think about how to create it, and get back to me. I'm waiting to hear from him to see if he's thought of something that would work. In addition, the price estimates I've gotten so far were substantially higher than I was expecting. Alison, I'd love to know the details of how you and your dh did this. Did you add a whole cabinet box? If not, what did you mount your pullout to, and what does your door rest against? I would appreciate any ideas. Thanks! Here is a link that might be useful: rev-a-shelf double pull out