We have a septic system, so we don't have a garbage disposal now. I had one where we used to live. Potato peels should not be put down a disposal, same with banana peels, carrot peels, etc. I never put pizza crusts or anything like that down it. Everyone I know who has one uses it for the little bits, not for big stuff.

Have you considered a compost pile?

I bring home lemon slices to clean my disposal!

I put most things in the disposal. I do not put onion skins in as they clogged once. I also don't put celery or banana peels in because they are so stringy.

Everything possible goes into the disposal. I also use lemon and orange peals to clean mine. Not using it seems silly - I can't imagine the reasoning behind putting waste into the trash where it can take several years to decompose instead of ground up and into the sewage system where it will be filtered out into holding ponds and decompose much more quickly. Where's the logic behind his reasoning??? Ask him to explain.

I have never owned a food disposal. We compost all fruits and vegetables (as long as there is no gravy or butter on them), and the rest goes in the garbage. If you throw out the garbage every day, your house doesn't stink. We recycle all paper, plastic, cans, glass, milk cartons/jugs, and I'm sure there's more, but I can't think off hand. LOL Very little goes in the trash. I'll even use my paper shredder to cross cut important papers, and put that in the compost bin. The less we put in the landfills, the better the environment. :o)

I put scraps from our plates down the disposal, but not things like pizza crust, banana, potato or onion peels or any large amounts of scrap anything. Once I put about a dozen egg shells into the disposal and it clogged up.. so I try not to 'overdo' it anymore.

I don't know what's right or wrong - this is just what I do. Works for me.

Solstice, I'd ask him to explain, but I've found that to be futile in most situations. LOL. He doesn't explain, he just thinks what he thinks. Oh well. Like any good marriage, I listen to his opinion and then just do what I want. ;o)

I use mine for almost everything. Don't put large amounts of peelings into it, though. Just a precaution on my part. Also no grisly meat. The gristle/fat just rolls around in there. DH loves pistachios and once in a while there will be a grinding noise because a shell was stuck to the bowl and is now in the disposal. So, after turning off the disposal, I reach into it and dragout whatever is spinning around. Also, once I had made a chicken and rice casserole that didn't cook the rice completely and I dumped it into the disposal. Big mistake! After a couple of days the disposal was backed up and a plumber came and after opening the main drain...found a cement-like plug...it was the rice that had swelled from the water! Don't put any rice in there anymore...ha!

Leslie/KS

Stephanie, of course you're supposed to use it every day!

Who wants a bunch of stinky, spoiled garbage sitting in the kitchen trash can?

We have a garden with a compost pile, as debby mentioned she does, so some of the fruit & veg scraps go there, but the other bits belong down the disposal of those fortunate enough to have one.

Mostly I put things in my compost pile but before I started composting, I used the disposal daily.
I have a lemon tree so I use the peels on a regular basis to keep it fresh.

I put everything down the disposal. The only exception is stringy things like celery,husks or huge amounts of peelings at one time. Banana peels along with most fruit rinds are fine. Also don't use it for things like artichoke leaves or shrimp shells. Actually a disposal is supposed to be used for hard things. Hard things keep the "blades" in good working order. Just don't try to grind soft bones like rib bones or some parts of chicken bones. They tend to splinter and can jam the disposal.

Always run cold water during use and for several seconds after to flush the pipes.

Never put uncooked rice or pasta down a disposal. It will double in volume and clog your pipes. (I have personal experience with this LOL)

Once a week or so grind a tray of ice in your disposal to keep it clean. A lemon or orange thrown down occasionally keeps it smelling fresh. Don't waste your money on disposal cleaners.

Scraping plates is the number one reason to have a disposal. What does your DH think it's for?

I've had and used a disposal for over 35 years. I can't imagine not having one. We find they last around 10 years. Easy to replace.

same for me but can't do egg shells anymore...we too, have critters that would rip the garbage and have if the lids arn't on tight and we're more urban than sub...(racoon, and possims both live around here)

I use mine for everything, except egg shells, rice and artichokes. MIL is famous for STUFFING the disposal with egg shells and just about everything she puts down there...then not turning it on. I did the rice thing...once. And my DS had the artichoke mishap.

I would just keep doing what you are doing. LOL

I have lots of worms to eat my food scraps for me. (Vermicomposting). They eat everything!

I don't know of anyone who has one. Even new model homes don't have them installed. I live in Ontario, but that doesn't mean we aren't allowed to use them.

I heard that some states have them banned because they don't want all the garbage going into their water treatment plants. Makes sense to me, but I wouldn't know.

Sherry

My garbage disposal gets just about everything. I was reluctant with the first one to use it to it's fullest ability. That was 35 years and 3 homes ago. The disposal in this house is now 10 years old. It has chewed up all of the things mentioned in the previous posts, plus cherry seeds, peach pits, melon and cantaloup rinds, pineapple tops, small poultry bones, and corn cobs....yes bones and corn cobs. I leave the grinding up of that "heavy duty" stuff to DH, because it makes me a little nervous. He is the guy who has to fix it if he breaks it. He says that is what it is for, "USE IT FOR PETES SAKE"! He says that the key is use plenty of water, and throw in a tray of ice cubes now and then and do put your coffee grinds in..helps clean it out. The one we have now has been in use daily for 10 years and the one we had in another home for 13 years gave us no problems. They were both from Sears. We once had a top of the line 'Insinkerator' die in less than a year.

Yes we do compost a lot of kitchen waste, but there is still a lot to go down the disposal. I compost very little through the winter.

About the only thing I don't put in ours is celery, because of the stringy part, banana peel, bones and fat and gristle.
I use it every day.

Linda

We compost everything that we can and only use the disposal to grind up the little bits that are still on the plates when we wash them. We are careful with ours.

We use ours a LOT. I always put potato peelings and onion skins down it, but I do put lots of water in the sink before I peel the potatoes and run the water while I"m using the disposal.
I agree, why have it if you never use it?
JoanMN

I am another that uses it for just about everything! I put my potato peels down...but I don't stuff them down and then turn it on, I have the water running and start to push them down...with a wooden spoon! No onions or any banana peels...but just about everything else. We have cats, and if we put all of it in the garbage, well...yuck! lol

I use mine too. Except for the things already mentioned. I put potato and carrot peelings down mine too. I just run lots of water as I do it, and run it for about 30 seconds after shutting it off, to rinse the drain out.
Leslie

My Mom lives in a suburban area (12 miles outsiode Buffalo NY) and has had garbage disposals for 40 years. She uses hers every single day. The only thing she doesn't put down it is hard stuff like meat, banana peels and corn cobs. Other than that, she puts everything in the sink, turns on the water and her Insinkerator, whoosh go the scraps. I think she puts stale bread out in the backyard for the birds.

I'm surprised you haven't had a problem when you use it for potato peelings. When I lived in VA, I had a problem with an backup which was caused by potato peelings. The plumber said because of the starch, the peelings turn into almost glue. Just to be sure checked with another plumber and he said the same thing.

I now peel the potatoes on a newspaper and then throw the peelings onto a compost pile.

There's a huge difference between disposals, I've found.

At 'home', I have the best brand disposal available, in the batch-feed version. While I do avoid the obvious no-no's like celery, lettuce leaves, cereal (NEVER put cereal down your disposal, per my plumber FIL), I use it for pretty much everything else. Never have had any problem with things like egg shells, peach pits, piles of potato or apple peelings, etc.

However, the house we bought in the country has a small, continuous feed disposal that's worse than nothing. I plan to replace it as soon as possible, and since I have plenty of room, I've started a compost pile anyway--but in the meantime, I try not to let anything go down the disposal.

To me, there's no point in having a disposal if you can't use it. And yes--scraping plate scraps is the number one reason FOR a disposal. Although, I'd never put pizza scraps down one--I put all bread-type scraps out for the birds, can't see wasting them when our feathered friends enjoy them so much.

Have any of you checked with the city as to whether they'd prefer that you put a lot of that stuff down the sink, or through the garbage/recycling system? Quite likely one path is more easily dealt with (and more effective from the point of view of not wasting useful stuff) than the other.

In this area, they used to truck the sludge that, at substantial expense, they filtered out of the sewage system to haul out to put on farm land as fertilizer ... but there are toxic materials, even if rather rare, that mean that they no longer allow farmers to put that material on land which is to grow food for humans, in at least some places (I think quite a few places).

Do many of you have a garden? Why buy fertilizer, when you flush good fertilizer-style stuff down the drain for the city's sewage disposal people to cope with, rather than composting it?

If you don't have a garden, is there some quality land available nearby that could be developed into a community garden (such as have been developed near a number of churches), or some that could be reclaimed, which would allow you to make/have one, next year? How about using the cleared land under a power line? There was a thread over on "Money Saving Tips" the other day showing how distressed many are becoming over the high and rapidly increasing price of food.

A garden sure is a great money-saver providing a bounteous supply of nutritious veggies (and you can keep it "organic") ... have you noted the premium price exacted when one buys (so-called) "organics" in the food store?? I think that few of their sources are "certified".

A garden sure is a great stress-reliever, into the bargain: psychiatrists are *expensive*, remember?

It gives a good opportunity for us to help children understand the processes that go into providing our food supply: it doesn't just appear in bottles or cans and many of us feel that it's important thet they learn some of these realities.

Quite likely a number of you have active recycling projects in place to divert some of your former "garbage" into various streams to recycle.

Good wishes for making the most effective use of our increasingly scarce resources.

And if you think that they're scarce now ... just wait until there gets to be a major middle class in a number of formerly/still currently, Third World countries.

ole joyful

P.S. A couple of years ago a "landfill" (read, "garbage dump") within a couple of miles of my house had its licence increased from 9 million to 17 million tons' capacity. I knew what would happen next, as hundreds of garbage trucks have travelled though here for years to carry Toronto's garbage to an area near Detroit ... to the increasingly vocal distress of many Michiganders ... so we knew what would happen next ... and it did - Toronto bought this garbage dump: for $220,000,000.

I have brought drinking and cooking water from elsewhere, as uncle's surface, cribbed well was too close to the barnyard, so the water that it provided wouldn't pass safety tests.

There have been no cattle there for three or four years so eventually the water will test clear, as far as barnyard runoff is concerned ...

... but, should I still be around (I'm within a few months of 80) I rather doubt that I'll be willing to drink the water, even then. With a garbage dump two miles away? I don't think so! It's not the fancy-pants' testers whose lives are at risk.

o j

P.P.S. I've thought that "Hot Topics" were to be discussed elsewhere ... at least, that's what I've been told, when discussig some of my more controversial topics around here.

Go for it!

(still) o j

We use ours everyday. I don't put eggshells, onion skins, bones, peach pits or coffee grounds in it. Every thing else is fair game. Never had a problem with banana peels. Either compost it or put it in the disposal, not in the trash can. We are on sewer now but I have used one successfully on septic tanks for years. Only problem I ever had was from onion skins.

Linda

Putting ice cubes through it once a week is supposed to keep the blades good and sharp. I don't have one, it's just what I heard.

We compost what we can and put the rest down the disposal.
I would not put banana peels down and you have to be careful with the amount of potato peels, but of course, I'd use it every day!

I wish I had one, but I'm in a semi-rural area and we don't have sewers. We have septic tanks and cesspools. I had to have my cesspool serviced three times last January when it backed up into my house. Yuck! Gross! I have a garden so I compost any vegetable matter, coffee grounds. Meat scraps go in regular garbage for weekly pick-up. Stale bread, rolls, cake go outside for the birds. My dog eats some of my table scraps,very little. I wish I could have a garbage disposal!

I'll put some stuff down the disposal -- but mostly compost everything. I got a composter via the local organic store several years ago [previously had built own], ended up buying one form my sister and now one for a friend of hers... My mom has a new Insinkerator -- darn thing is so quiet --it's scary!

I hate the disposal. DH insists on having a disposal, but I would trash the thing in a minute if it died. I rarely use it.We have "sewer lagoons" in our area and I hate the thought of what goes down the drains into to waste water collection. We have a "chicken bucket" next to the sink. Everything 'edible' but not for human consumption goes in it: fat off the meat (no bones), potato peelings, core out of the lettuce, limp lettuce leaves, banana peels, coffee grounds, tops off strawberries, paper towels that have been used to wipe stuff up, you get the picture. It then gets carried out to the chickens and they scratch and eat what they want. I am forever throwing straw in and it all gets mixed up. Periodically, I shovel out the hen yard and it either gets composted in the summer with the lawn clippings or gets put into the raised beds for mulch. Now that they have glass and plastic recycling along with the newspaper and cardboard around here, we only have one can to put on the curb and some weeks it isn't worth dragging it down the driveway because there is nothing in it!

I absolutely hate garbage disposals. I only have one because dh wants it and I think it would probably be something expected for resale of the house.

I don't like garbage disposals because I think they are a hassel. They stink and no one wants to clean it. I don't want to clean it either. I have a compost pile for the veggie waste. Most everything else gets thrown away.

Arellabedella--why does your disposal smell? I've had one for over 25 years and never had a problem with any kind of smell. If you run it immediately when you put food into it, and run enough water to carry the pulverized food away, there shouldn't be a problem with it smelling.

I used my disposal daily...anything and everything went in there. I learned about artichoke leaves and celery the hard way.

I did not "stuff" it, potato peels went down a few at a time
with the water running. Same with carrot peelings. I would follow up with ice cubes and a little baking soda if oranges/lemons or limes weren't readily available.

Once a month I would put that "rid-x septic tank stuff" down my drains and toilets. I was not on a septic tank, just seemed the thing to do. In all my houses I never had a clogged sink/drain or toilet.

I didn't have one till I was 38. Didn't last. I took it out. Smelled. Guess, cause I didn't use it enough. We really don't have foods we would put down through it. We have a compost pile, and a vermicomposting bin. I get the daily paper in plastic, with is perfect for the occasional food stuff, before it goes in the trash.

This house has one. It stinks, mostly cause DH won't remember to run it, after he dumps egg yolks down the sink. YUCK.

I will take it out as soon as I get around to it.

Moni

What is a disposal for if not for food scraps? HUH?

That said, I use mine as little as possible, composting or burying almost all my scraps except meat.

However, if you do not use your disposal it will start to smell because bits of food do get trapped there and start to rot. So it should be run with something in it every few days to keep it clean.

Well -- I will say that even if you use it regularly, and run ice cubes and orange/lemon rinds in it... unless you take something and wipe the underside of the rubber splash guard -- it may well smell. I've had some that are removable and thus easier to clean off -- others are fixed & I end up using damp paper towels to get the scum off.. ick...

cate, that is why I will take mine out. Ick.

Moni

True story: Son is a VP for a very respectable, high-end (i.e EXPENSIVE) house builder, and this got kicked up to him. The new (foreign-born, new immigrant) homeowners wanted the broken garbage disposal replaced. Seems they were trying to dispose of the baby's Pampers (Huggies?) They claimed it was a "disposer" and the diapers were "disposable." Evidently, something got lost in the translation to English.

The rule in my house is no food in the trash compactor. All food waste goes in the disposer. The only things I have had a problem grinding were beef and pork bones, pieces of fat, and corn cobs. When I do celery, I just chop it into smaller pieces and potato peels get plenty of water. No clogs in over 3 years. And yes I do pizza crust!

We use to have one, didn't use it. When we remodeled the kitchen years ago we didn't replace the old one. Took it out. Garbage and scraps aren't meant to go down the pipes. They go in the trash can where they are suppose to go. What can be composted, is. NancyLouise

This is absolutely yucky, yucky, yucky!!! I noticed a nasty smell from our garbage disposal. I knew there were products to counteract this, so figured it must not be all that unusual. I bought a product at the store, but hadn't used it yet. I thought I would run a paper towel around the under side of the rubber gaskets and clean it some. I put my hand down in there and there was a wad of rotted "something" that hadn't gone through the disposal...and had just laid there and rolled around and rotted more each day....it was so nasty, I almost can't write about it. I'm setting here typing with my lip curled in disgust. I hardly ever use the disposal and wish we didn't have it. My husband uses it and never runs enough water through...he wasn't the one who had to clean it out...nasty, nasty..yuck