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GARBAGE DISPOSALS - A PROBLEM FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

 

Here are a couple of things to consider:

 

• The ground-up waste does NOT go back to nature's water supply to be gobbled up by fish and other life forms. It must first pass through the sewage-treatment plant (or your septic system). This not only increases the load on our already overburdened sewage-treatment facilities, the process also removes any food value the waste might have had further down the line.

 

• It's true that putting the food waste in the trash will shift the burden to the local landfill instead of your sewage treatment system, but landfills are causing us far fewer problems today than sewage treatment systems. The latter are a main source of "nutrient pollution"--one of the main causes of coastal dead zone in estuaries,gulfs, and bays.. Adding your nutrient-rich food waste to the sewage stream only makes the problem worse.

 

• Grinding food uses lots of water, and we're seeing fresh water become a more and more precious commodity. So, if composting is out for you, put as much of your food waste as possible in the trash can.

 

Dealing with Garbage Disposal Smell

 

We do make one exception to the rule of minimizing use of the garbage disposal, and that is to address the issue of garbage disposal smell. Over time, a film of scum can form down in the grinding chamber, and it may get a little smelly. To combat the smell, try grinding the peels from a piece of citrus fruit--orange, grapefruit, lemon, and lime--once a week. The mechanical action of the rough peels getting ground up combined with the peels' citric acid--a natural cleaning agent--gets things clean and fresh down there.