On Thu 22 Jan 2009 10:59:00a, Janet Wilder told us...

> Wayne Boatwright wrote:
>> On Wed 21 Jan 2009 11:18:26p, Leonard Blaisdell told us...
>>
>>> In article >,
>>> sf > wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:07:33 -0800 (PST),
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Mine never worked well, so when it died, I did not replace it. I
>>>>> didn't buy it - it came with the place.
>>>> If it never worked, how would you know if you'd really like one or
>>>> not?
>>> Our GD died three days before Thanksgiving this year. It had worked
>>> for twenty one years. My wife asked if we really needed another.
>>> We didn't need one but I wanted one. The plumbing dictated that we
>>> have one without me crawling under the sink and doing or knowing stuff
>>> to bypass the lack of a garbage disposal.
>>> I bought another GD at Sears with installation for less than two
>>> hundred bucks that was installed the day before Thanksgiving. I felt
>>> blessed and gave thanks to the installer on Thanksgiving Day, because
>>> Thanksgiving is when I really need, or think I need, a GD.
>>>
>>> leo
>>>
>>
>> Except for our present house which is on a septic system, we have had a
>> garbage disposer in whatever house we've lived in for the past 40 odd
>> years. I really do miss not having one. In-Sink-Erator makes a model
>> that is supposed to be compatible with septic systems. It injects
>> enzymes into the chamber while it's grinding, which is supposed to
>> break down food, but I'm still skeptical. I may investigate further.
>>
>
> You could do the same thing by putting extra enzyme stuff into your
> septic and I don't think that would really work, either. The more solids
> in the septic tank, the longer it takes to break them down and the more
> full the tank gets. At least that's how I see it.

You make a good point, Janet. As an habitual garbage disposer user over
many years, I was always on the sewer line, so it didn't matter too much
what I ground up, including table scraps, peelings and trimmings from
vegetables, and even some bones. I always had a top line fairly powerful
disposer. If I make the decision to add one at this point, I would be far
more judicious in what I chose to put in it. Certainly there would be no
bones and a minimal amount of raw materials such as excessive peelings and
trimmings. Having said that, it would still be a godsend for scraping off
plates and lightly rinsing before putting in the dishwasher. Given that,
it might not be such a burden. Normally I'm only preparing food for the
two of us, so overall volume would be limited, too.

Unfortunately, we have no need to compost, so things that one might add to
a composting bin would simply have to go out with the trash pickup as it
all does now.

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