apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

when the city allowed them, the coop board in the building where I live sent out a flyer explaining that because of the age of the building or when it was renovated (don't quite remember which) the system couldn't handle garbage disposal units.

unless you have a vermicomposter, lots of flat-dwellers don't have access to outdoor composting, so this can be very handy.

I spent lots of money to have one installed in my rental house. They are very convenient. For me, the selling point is the wide drain opening. Sure beats picking little pieces of food out of the strainer basket.

We have one, but my husband is the Garbage Disposal Nazi -- his head explodes whenever I put anything down it that I'm not "supposed" to, including coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable peels, etc.

We use the garbage disposal when the vermicompost bin gets maxed out. It's okay, and I feel better about using it than I do about throwing the kitchen scraps away, but I wouldn't say I love it. By the way, Kelly H, I thought that vegetable peels were fine and that egg shells were good for it (sharpening blades or some such)? Is that not true? The only problem I've had is with celery.

I don't have one in the city -- but my partner insisted on one in our CT condo -- it's like his favorite toy. I don't get it -- garbage belongs in the garbage, and I can't stand having to worry about what is acceptable to go down the thing and what will cause problems.

Esp here in the city, as a west sider -- I don't want yesterdays scraps floating past me in the Hudson while I try to enjoy a sunny afternoon in Riverside Park!

Composting -- if your living situation and lifestyle allows -- is the way to go!

I am in the process of adding one - next to the addition of a dishwasher this is the item I am most excited about! A little-considered environmental benefit: without stinky garbage, I will not have to change as frequently and can actually fill up the bags I do use.

I have one for the first time in my life and must admit I'm not sure what to do with it.

Mid-C Frank: Its not a matter of where garbage belongs, but rather one of the full cycle. Ie. what happens after you put it in the garbage.

Cheers!

v in boston,
the eggshells are good for the disposal. it cleans the blades if you throw some down periodically. i also like to grind some lemon peels once in a while to deodorize the disposal.

We compost religiously -- in San Francisco, we have a curbside recycling program that allows meat, fats, and soiled food wrappers, even -- but when we remodeled our kitchen, there was never a question: The garbage disposal was a necessity we'd done without long enough. We only use it for food bits that are too small to bother scraping into the compost bin, but as far as I am concerned, it's worth the expense so that I never have to clean out a sink strainer ever again.

My plumber explained to me that in (even slightly) older buildings, the insides of the drain pipes get very raspy, and the tiny food particles, along with soap, etc., cling to them. Eventually the effective diameter is small enough to allow clogs to occur. He said new pipes these days are lined with ceramic or something, but that even those fail over time.

Weak-motored disposers tend to jam, but the stronger ones are worth the extra money because they can eat almost all produce waste. Also, new ones are available that are much better sound-insulated, and one or two have "cover control" to turn them on, so you don't need a switch on the wall--you just twist the lid on.

But anyway I don't see what's so bad about food waste in landfills--it composts itself.

I wouldn't want to live w/o ours. We put anything down it except for bones, stringy stuff (corn husks, celery, etc.), or coffee grounds. I use ice or citrus to clean/freshen it.

It allows us to sometimes go all week without changing the trash bag in our kitchen (all the food scraps go down the drain and much of the other stuff goes in the recycle bin. We choose not to attract raccoons, opossums, etc. to the compost pile, so no food scraps go there.

My dad always told me to make sure you run plenty of water down the drain after the food, so it doesn't sit in your pipes. Of course, we don't have a water shortage living next to the confluence of two enormous rivers.

For the first time ever, I managed to clog my disposal yesterday (I grew up w/ a disposal in the South, so this was a kluge 30 years in the making). What I did was totally boneheaded: I forced nearly an entire head of spoiled frisee down the drain. To say nothing of the stupidity of having let the frisee rot in the fridge, this was stupid because of how fibrous the stuff is. I remained, though, uncharacteristically calm, reasoning that since it was mere plant matter, I could solve this relatively easily. Remembering from Harold McGee that salt is the most efficient wilter of salad greens, I poured some down the drain. Then, I used the lazy woman's plunger: baking soda, followed by hot water, followed by distilled vinegar. In a matter of minutes, the clog broke free, and I was back to to spiriting my rotted veg down the sink.

I grew up with them, and I've lived without them for much of my adult life, but I must say that for me garbage disposals are one of my domestic must-haves. If forced to choose, I'd pick the disposal over the dishwasher.

I have never not had one. I had no idea they weren't allowed in New York. That's amazing, both that they weren't allowed and that I've never heard of it.

yeah, it was shocking when i moved to nyc (1999) and realized that a disposal was not as universal as the sink it's in. i didn't know that they weren't allowed, just thought it was a culture thing, whatever.

but i'm not in nyc anymore, and the disposal is one of those features that i am glad to have again. generally, if i could tear it with my teeth, it's fair game for the disposal (not in huge quantities, of course). i like it best for things like peels (garlic, carrot, etc), and especially for meaty things that i dont want to handle too much: fat trimmings, maybe some poultry skin.

oh, if you have a dishwasher, you do have to run the disposal and make sure its clear before you start the washer. otherwise, you get that junk right back on your dishes.

as far as I know new york was just about unique in this respect. I remember once being told it had something to do with a union, but which one or why escapes me -- assuming of course the basic tale is true.

I use a scrap bowl, and have no particular problems.

I don't have one where I live now, but grew up with one and miss it. I would rather have one over a dishwasher or even a laundry machine (which admittedly I don't use since I handwash and dry). The pipes where I live now are old and finicky and probably couldn't handle one though.

Alan,

The problem with food waste in landfills is that it doesn't compost itself. Landfills mummify things more than they compost them, and food scraps can be preserved unchanged for 30 or 40 years in there. So it's taking up landfill space, and it's also keeping nutrients that could go back into improving the soil from doing so. Even when the organic matter does break down, it doesn't break down the same way it would in an compost pile: organic matter breaking down in landfills produces methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas. Finally, organic matter in landfills can react with other materials and produce toxic leachate.

Bad stuff.

One thing I didn't explicitly note, when you compost correctly, food scraps do not produce methane.

I didn't know that the law had been revoked. I'd love to install one next time we decide to futz with our kitchen pipes, but I am suspicious of how NYC is intending to deal with the waste. Is it more environmentally responsible to put my scraps in the trash can or down the drain? (Much as I love compost, I have enough problems with ants and other pests and don't want to compost in our apartment.)

Don't have one and don't want one. I really don't mind cleaning out my $2.99 drainer from BB&B and replace it a couple times year. I'm looking into composting and hope to initiate that this year. For me, I have too overactive of an imagination and a fear that my hand will be chopped up by someone slipping on the switch to the garbage disposal! I still cringe each time a friend reaches into their own. Too many horror movies growing up or something.

I've only recently moved to NYC and this is the first time in my life that I haven't had a garbage disposal. I really miss it. It is such a handy little appliance!