Raleigh NC bans Garbage Disposals

[fqp25]

I think it should read "Disposers"

I heard this yesterday and really couldn't believe it. In my former life(as a plumber) and even now, people have asked me about grease in the drain and sewer lines. They usually got defensive when I explained it to them, saying "I don't throw grease down the drain!"

Grease is kind of a general term, usually meaning a build up of oils, and even soaps. When people finish eating off a plate they usually wash or rinse the plate off in a sink. Just about anything we prepare to eat contains some kind of oil. This will gradually build up in the building's waste/sewer line, and in the municipality's system.

Just because the kitchen sink doesn't have a food grinder doesn't prevent the irresponsible occupant from dumping a frying pan full of molten lard into the system. Maybe it will cut down their "spills in the sanitary sewer system", but not by much.

If the Raleigh (and surrounding cities) want to cut down on their city sewer system, they should start a city wide composting program, or even require new residential construction to have individual catch basins, or in house grease traps, that the owner will be responsible for maintaining.

http://news14.com/content/local_news/tr ... fault.aspx

Other mayor in the county agree on ban as well.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1001120.html

This could also be part of the solution.

http://www.naturemill.com/?gclid=CJSAx6 ... Ggod6xRE_Q

Frank

[hausdok]

Hi Frank,

Yeah, I see what you mean. I saw that Nature Mill thingy on the history channel when it aired. I think it's a great idea except what would folks in a city with noplace to dump that compost do with it - put it out to the curb so that the city can haul it off and use it for fertilizer for the park gardens? Plus, the thing is limited to only 5 lbs of organic waste a day. Hell, my wife is Korean and she is constantly preparing varieties of kimchi and canning them. She's already been forbidden by me to put most of the organic waste she makes down the disposal, but she could easily outstrip that Nature Mill thing's ability to keep pace.

It seems to me like city-wide composting programs make more sense. They need to have those supercharged composters on the Gigantor size; then they can sell the compost and use the profits to support city programs for kids recreation, the elderly, and the disabled. It would be better than letting folks keep compost piles in their back yard; hell, wars have been fought over compost piles in city neighborhoods. Gardeners are nuts about that kind of stuff; here in Seattle, the Woodland Park Zoo has a manure giveaway every year and the gardeners line up in their cars and trucks for that stuff. I gardeners would be willing to pay for that kind of compost produced by a city if it were priced less than what they'd pay at a nursery.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike

[Brandon Chew]

You'll be seeing this more and more in the future. One day they'll be banned in the IRC, just like drum traps.

Grinding up your food and throwing it down the drain to get rid of it is no longer a good idea. Neither is piping your building sewer directly into a stream, or connecting your storm water and sanitary sewer systems together. Each of those at one time was considered "state of the art" technology.

As our wastewater treatment system infrastructure ages and reaches capacity, the federal funding that flowed so freely for that infrastructure in the 70's and 80's has dried up, and the public's demands for clean water force ever tightening regulation, communities are being forced to bear ever increasing costs to build and maintain their wastewater treatment systems.

People don't want their sewer bills to increase and one way that communities can hold those increases down is to reduce the volume and strength of stuff that gets sent down the drain. There's no compelling public health reason to flush household food waste down the drain and there are readily available alternatives to doing it. It's done as a matter of convenience.

The days of the carefree flush are gradually coming to an end.

[Brian G]

I've seen a few grown people treat disposers just like a kid treats a paper shredder. They obviously get some kind of destructive charge out of putting stuff in it.

I like mine because it clears the sink quickly and pulverizes whatever tiny scraps do get by the scraping-off.

Brian G.

It Ain't a Toy [:-propell