About Garbage Disposals & Wasting Water

Garbage Disposal

• Garbage disposals are small appliances installed beneath kitchen sinks. When you scrape food scraps like carrot peels or leftovers into the kitchen drain and run the disposal, sharp blades spin and chop up the scraps. The food bits are flushed down the drainpipe and into the sewer system. Garbage disposals are convenient; instead of carefully gathering all food out of your kitchen sink, you can instead wash it down the drain by flipping a switch.

Water Waste

• In order for a garbage disposal to run properly, all food bits must be flushed out of it after each use. This means you need to run water into the drain while the unit is in use and then continue to run water for 15 to 30 seconds after to wash away any lingering scraps. In an average home, each use of the disposal requires two gallons of rinse water. In a year, a home can go through 700 gallons of water just for the disposal. In addition, the food scraps washed into the sewer system can create more waste water as sewage treatment plants work to remove it from the water supply.

Alternatives

• If you are looking for an alternative to using a garbage disposal that doesn’t involve putting food scraps into a landfill, consider composting. Composting allows you to naturally transform food waste into fertilizer that can be used on plants in your garden. It offers the advantage of giving you a way to get rid of hard items like shells and fibrous foods that cannot be put into a disposal.

Considerations

• There is no way to use water more efficiently in a garbage disposal; running less water into the unit leads to food waste lingering in your pipes and in the disposal itself. This causes your sink to drain slowly, and the lingering scraps attract bacteria and start to smell. If you haven’t installed a garbage disposal yet, look up the regulations for your area. Some building codes forbid their use because of the amount of water wasted using them each year.