Does Putting Food Waste Down a Garbage Disposal Hurt a Sewer System?

Design

• Attached to your sink drain, garbage disposals are electric appliances that use a series of blades to grind food and waste and allow the matter to be flushed away with water into your plumbing lines. Invented in 1927 by John W. Hammes, disposals are used across the country for their convenience and ability to reduce household waste.

Water Usage

• It isn't merely food waste going down the drain that causes a problem for sewerage systems. Because disposals require running water to function, every time you flush collected waste down the drain, you are using more water than you otherwise would have. Even clean water can tax sewerage systems, causing overflows that result in a mix of treated and untreated waters. This is especially true when city systems are dealing with heavy rain and snowstorms.

Too Much Stuff

• Ground-up garbage is still garbage and putting too much of anything down your drain is just a bad idea. Although your use and misuse of your disposal and plumbing will most likely only adversely affect your own household, clogged lines leading to your city connection can be a headache for everyone. What you put in the disposal should never overflow to the drain and it's important to feed scraps slowly. When in doubt, remember that less is better. When the water stops flowing freely or the unit stops working, you've got a clog or a jam.

The Wrong Stuff

• The biggest problem with garbage disposals for sewerage systems is that most homeowners do not use the devices strictly as intended. In theory, there's nothing wrong with flushing most pulverized organic matter down a cold water drain and into the sewerage system. However, foodstuffs that should not be put down the drain often are. Protein-based wastes and grease build up in the lining of plumbing, similarly to clogged arteries in people, and cause blockages, stoppages and overflows. Avoid putting meat, bones, eggshells and coffee grounds into your drain. As a general rule of thumb, don't put put anything in your disposal that you wouldn't put into a compost heap.