Garbage Disposals Bad for the Environment?
Garbage disposals may be one of the most overused items in the kitchen and could be having a huge impact on our environment. Are garbage disposals really that bad for the environment and is it really the worse option?
How Do They Work?
It is an electronically powered device in below the sink drain to shred food into tiny particles. Food scraps end up being approximately 10-20% of our total waste. This can really be a huge burden on water treatment plants if most of those scraps end up down our sinks. There are those who feel that some positives come out of putting scraps down the sink instead of throwing them out is that. Landfills are already overfilled as is and water treatment plants are better equipped to handling small scraps. Garbage disposals can also help eliminate large food scraps from making their way down our drains.
I wanted to see what a large garbage disposal company like InSinkErator would say about the environmental impact of their products. Here is what they had to say:
Food waste is mostly water (70%) so it makes sense to grind it up in your disposal and send it to municipal waste water treatment plants. Methane, the biogas created during the processing, can be captured and used to generate renewable power for the plant or municipality. Many modern wastewater treatment plants do that, and the number is growing. The biosolids that result from treatment can be processed and sold as fertilizer and soil conditioner. This in turn, reduces the need for energy intensive fertilizers. And you don’t have to worry about disposals’ water and electricity usage. They average less than 50 cents a year in electricity to operate and account for about one percent or less of a household’s total water consumption.
This does seem to paint a nice picture for how water treatment plants handle food waste. They also claim that it is much worse to send food scraps to landfills because they produce methane because of the rapid decomposition. The fact is that 30% of the waste is filtered out and sent to local landfills anyways. On top of that, many of the water treatment plants throughout North America and Europe do not have a way to catch biogas.
What to do?
Whether you throw food waste in the trash or use a garbage disposal to send it to water treatment plants, there seems to be negative environmental impacts. Home Composting is a great alternative to burdening our already over taxed water and waste systems. Not only is it far less taxing on the environment, but you can save some real cash on buying expensive soil additives at local garden nurseries. Compost really makes a huge difference in your garden and you are producing it for free. Even if you do live in a urban setting and a compost bin doesn’t make sense, there are indoor composting bins that produce no odor and are just as effective as outdoor models.
