Waste Disposal Units

[dandeloin]

Hi All,

just wanted to ask if anybody here has a waste disposal unit in their kitchen, and if so would you recommend one? We're facing into renovating our kitchen and this has been suggested to us, but I don't know much about them. Thanks!

[specialsubject]

Eco disaster - using fresh water and electricity to wash away food waste , not good.

A small compost bin is all you need.

[BubblesBuddy]

Ignore the doom and gloom above! I have two!!!

The electricity consumed is minimal and composting is difficult in a flat or in a tiny garden. Mine do chicken bones and anything small. They don’t take a lot of water. You could use washing up water if you want to. The water you would normally throw away. If you shower instead of a bath - use a bit of saved water for your waste disposal! Life is too short to agonise over what to do with a bit of veg peelings and waste food! I tend to use mine for tea bags, veg peelings and bits and pieces of unused food. I don’t over buy.

Ours have never gone wrong and I wouldn’t be without them. We also are not on main sewer. So what I put down it is up to me.

[wowfudge]

We also are not on main sewer. So what I put down it is up to me.

Quite how anyone can think that putting food waste down the drains is a good idea is beyond me.

[specialsubject]

Waste disposal and a septic tank is a big no no. Your blockage, at least.

[Mjs0510]

We have one and its great - used mainly to rinse dishes and cooking pots and pans. Saves clogging the dishwasher up.

I don't use it for larger items though.

[Mosaic123]

I love mine too. I scrape the contents of dirty plates down it and give them a tiny rinse, which I would do before washing up anyway, but then put into dishwasher without moving where I'm standing. Fabulous.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

We've had one for over 30 years but hardly use it now that the council collects food waste weekly. Garden is really too small for a compost heap or bin, or I'd do that for raw veg waste, eggshells, etc.

I used to use the WD particularly for any potentially really smelly food waste such as bits of meat or fish, but now I just put anything like that in the freezer until the night before the bin men come.

[Astrabees]

I am very pleased with mine, it is an Insinkerator (?sp) and as a vegetarian/vegan family we have loads of peel and sprout leaves etc. which we cannot compost in a small garden, plus things like pinapple tops that are useless anyway. It was quite expensive - about £500 - but I really would find it miserable to manage without it.

[specialsubject]

This is why councils should collect food waste.

No plate scraping here - we put out what we will eat. No kids though.

[howabout]

Interesting article on the merits / demerits of waste disposals. As with most things environmental the case for composting is far from clear.

www.citylab.com/environment/2017/08/garbage-disposals-new-york/538581/

I had one in the US and I miss it now. My top tip is that it is better to use things like coffee grounds to deodorise it and maintain a balance in waste going down it rather than using chemicals.

[Astrabees]

I don't user my food waste bin at all, I think of all the smelly decomposing food put outside our houses in plastic boxes every Tuesday and it makes me feel quite ill, prefer mine to be gone immediately.

[wowfudge]

The link above relates to New York.

Anyone who still thinks these abominations are a good idea should read this.

Waste disposal units are classed as sewer misuse in the UK and they waste water.

Also, why would you want to actively feed the vermin in the sewers?

[Astrabees]

We don't put fat down ours. The link you provided links to macerators that are used for toilet waste. I'm sure the vermin get out and about to eat the contents of the plastic bins every bit as much as eating it down the sewers, in fact in the countryside we don'[t have any sewers.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

Vermin have never got into our food waste bin. There's a handle which effectively locks it.
I've sometimes thought of getting a wormery, where the little wrigglers convert all your food waste into liquid fertiliser.
Has anyone got one?

[Astrabees]

The rats around here can nibble through plastic, as I discovered to my cost when using plastic dustbins to store horse feed a few years back.

[trixymalixy]

There is one in our new house. I love it.

I must add though that the vast majority of our food waste goes into the bin collected by the council and i never put any fat down it.

It's useful for sloppy stuff like cereal dregs though.

[wowfudge]

That link isn't just about macerators for toilet waste - waste disposal units are a type of macerator and are referred to.

Clearly some people aren't going to change their views, but minimising food waste and not putting it down the drains - it can be composted or incinerated - is preferable imo.