I received the gift of a copy of Lou Manfredini's "Mr. Fix-It
Introduces You To Your Home." Normally this kind of book would bore
the hell out of me but this one cracks me up. He has a very humorous
and almost sarcastic writing style that reminds me of something I
might read here. I've met him and he's a very cool guy.

I've never liked garbage disposals because of what they do to the
environment and the plumbing. Also safety issues. I've witnessed
what happens when a disposable lighter gets dropped down and not
retrieved. The blades hit the flint perfectly and the explosion blew
the disposal off the sink, and shot a fireball all the way to the
ceiling. Luckily nobody was hurt. I've also seen someone use it for
an ashtray. Cigarette filters take forever to decompose. Over the
course of her lifetime she put 1000's of them on our water supply.

Lou Manfredini is "preaching to the choir" in my case but here's what
he has to say. I found it amusing and so true:

"In the kitchen, there's probably nothing more convenient than a
garbage disposal. You flick a switch and everything disappears down
the drain. Convenient yes, but I also happen to think there is
nothing sloppier, more wasteful, and more offensive to any sort of
environmental standards.
Let's start with the problem. Food goes down the garbage disposal,
and a series of blades grind it up. The resulting slurry is washed
down the drain with water. From a technical standpoint, this works
great. But from any other standpoint, this is awful! Garbage
disposals allow people to use their drains as garbage cans. And
garbage cans and drains do not mix. All that pureed corn and potato
peels and remnants of macaroni and cheese can clog up your sewage
system, especially is you have a septic system. If you're connected
to a municipal sewage system, you're adding needlessly to the burden
of creating clean water by overloading it with all this slop.
So what's the alternative? The sink strainer. This is a low-tech
device that's 99% effective at catching debris before it goes down the
drain. Then you simply scoop it up and empty it in the trash or,
better yet, on the compost heap. That's what I do, and that's why
there will never be a garbage disposal in Mr. Fit-It's house."

<end quote>

This guy's great.

Lou <-----the other one

On 2007-05-09, Lou Decruss > wrote:

> there will never be a garbage disposal in Mr. Fit-It's house."

Yep, I've pretty much quit using mine. Amazes me that it's highly
illegal to pour motor oil down street drains, but ok to put just about
anything that won't clog a disposal down the drain. Makes no sense.
Then again, neither do detergents. But, try and find a good
bio-degradable dish soap. I used to be able to buy one at my local
supermarket, but no more.

nb

On Wed, 09 May 2007 11:32:01 -0500, notbob > wrote:

>On 2007-05-09, Lou Decruss > wrote:
>
>> there will never be a garbage disposal in Mr. Fit-It's house."
>
>Yep, I've pretty much quit using mine.

The house we're moving to has one. I don't tell Louise what to do but
I've explained the problems with them and she's happy to leave it
alone when we spend time there.

> Amazes me that it's highly
>illegal to pour motor oil down street drains, but ok to put just about
>anything that won't clog a disposal down the drain.

Cleaning paint brushes is one thing that scares me. We're all worried
about what's in our food supply yet we put all that crap in our water.

Lou

"Lou Decruss" > wrote:
> "In the kitchen, there's probably nothing more convenient than a
> garbage disposal. You flick a switch and everything disappears down
> the drain. Convenient yes, but I also happen to think there is
> nothing sloppier, more wasteful, and more offensive to any sort of
> environmental standards.
> Let's start with the problem. Food goes down the garbage disposal,
> and a series of blades grind it up. The resulting slurry is washed
> down the drain with water. From a technical standpoint, this works
> great. But from any other standpoint, this is awful! Garbage
> disposals allow people to use their drains as garbage cans. And
> garbage cans and drains do not mix.

I look at it quite differently. The stuff is going to end up in a land fill
either way. If you toss it in the garbage can, it most certainly ends up in a
land fill. If you toss it into the garbage disposal, it goes to the sewage
treatment plant and is filtered out (via settling tanks) as sludge... which gets
taken to a land fill. The path is slightly different, but the final resting
place is the same.

There are much bigger problems than what goes down the garbage disposal. Using
the same logic, you really shouldn't use toilets either. You should go into a
chamber pot, and dump that into the garbage can. There's a much bigger payback,
in that the volume of shit going down the toilet is far greater in volume than
what goes down the garbage disposal. If you believe that your shit is somehow
"blessed" because it went through your digestive tract, you're wrong. Whether
the food scraps go down the sewer digested or undigested doesn't make a whole
lot of difference.

I know there are some people that just can't handle garbage disposals and have
all kinds of bad luck with them. I've never had a problem. My current one is 34
years old, though I'm only responsible for the last 13 years of its use.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

Lou Decruss wrote:

>
> "In the kitchen, there's probably nothing more convenient than a
> garbage disposal. You flick a switch and everything disappears down
> the drain. Convenient yes, but I also happen to think there is
> nothing sloppier, more wasteful, and more offensive to any sort of
> environmental standards.
> Let's start with the problem. Food goes down the garbage disposal,
> and a series of blades grind it up. The resulting slurry is washed
> down the drain with water. From a technical standpoint, this works
> great. But from any other standpoint, this is awful! Garbage
> disposals allow people to use their drains as garbage cans.


I don't know if the law is still in effect, but in the 60's it was
illegal in NYC to have a garbage disposal.

gloria p

"Puester" > wrote:
> I don't know if the law is still in effect, but in the 60's it was illegal in
> NYC to have a garbage disposal.

I wondered too. From what I've looked up, it looks like the ban was rescinded in
1997. Mention was made of the effect of their use on sewage treatment vs.
garbage collection, the same issue I brought up in my prior post. Some cities
even require garbage disposals!

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

"Puester" > wrote:
> I don't know if the law is still in effect, but in the 60's it was illegal in
> NYC to have a garbage disposal.

A NY Times article shortly after garbage disposals were allowed in 1997:

http://tinyurl.com/35zbmy

It also mentions the consideration of load on the sewage treatment plant vs.
household refuse collection.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

On Wed, 09 May 2007 11:17:17 -0500, Lou Decruss >
wrote:

>I've never liked garbage disposals because of what they do to the
>environment and the plumbing. Also safety issues. I've witnessed
>what happens when a disposable lighter gets dropped down and not
>retrieved. The blades hit the flint perfectly and the explosion blew
>the disposal off the sink, and shot a fireball all the way to the
>ceiling. Luckily nobody was hurt. I've also seen someone use it for
>an ashtray. Cigarette filters take forever to decompose. Over the
>course of her lifetime she put 1000's of them on our water supply.

You have three elements he the disposal unit, the cigarette
lighter, and the moron.

Why is it the disposal's fault?

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

On Wed, 09 May 2007 11:32:01 -0500, notbob > wrote:

>On 2007-05-09, Lou Decruss > wrote:
>
>> there will never be a garbage disposal in Mr. Fit-It's house."
>
>Yep, I've pretty much quit using mine. Amazes me that it's highly
>illegal to pour motor oil down street drains, but ok to put just about
>anything that won't clog a disposal down the drain. Makes no sense.
>Then again, neither do detergents. But, try and find a good
>bio-degradable dish soap. I used to be able to buy one at my local
>supermarket, but no more.
>
>nb

I've started to see 7th Generation products in local stores. How
about ordering on-line?

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

Curly Sue wrote:

> On Wed, 09 May 2007 11:17:17 -0500, Lou Decruss >
> wrote:
>
> > I've never liked garbage disposals because of what they do to the
> > environment and the plumbing. Also safety issues. I've witnessed
> > what happens when a disposable lighter gets dropped down and not
> > retrieved. The blades hit the flint perfectly and the explosion
> > blew the disposal off the sink, and shot a fireball all the way to
> > the ceiling.

> You have three elements he the disposal unit, the cigarette
> lighter, and the moron.
>
> Why is it the disposal's fault?

Yeah, of the reasons not to have a disposal, exploding lighters seems
pretty far down the list.



Brian

--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)

Lou Decruss wrote:
> I received the gift of a copy of Lou Manfredini's "Mr. Fix-It
> Introduces You To Your Home." Normally this kind of book would bore
> the hell out of me but this one cracks me up. He has a very humorous
> and almost sarcastic writing style that reminds me of something I
> might read here. I've met him and he's a very cool guy.
>
> I've never liked garbage disposals because of what they do to the
> environment and the plumbing. Also safety issues. I've witnessed
>
>
> <end quote>
>
> This guy's great.
>
> Lou <-----the other one
>
>

Always had one as a kid growing up. Mom loved hers. Then I got married
and ended up in the country with a big garden and lots of animals, like
chickens, ducks and peafowl. My MIL taught me to keep a container called
the "chicken garbage". No disposal. Most everything went to the
chickens or the compost pile. Made a lot of sense to me. Been doing that
ever since. I think it's the strangest thing to throw garbage down into
the sewers or worse, your own septic tank. Bad idea when there are other
ways to make it useful again.

Melondy

My nephew's a plumber.
He LOVES garbage disposals. ( they keep him in work )

Most of his house calls for clogged drains
involve homes with garbage disposals.

<rj>

(Curly Sue) wrote in
:

> On Wed, 09 May 2007 11:32:01 -0500, notbob
> > wrote:
>
>>On 2007-05-09, Lou Decruss > wrote:
>>
>>> there will never be a garbage disposal in Mr. Fit-It's
>>> house."
>>
>>Yep, I've pretty much quit using mine. Amazes me that it's
>>highly illegal to pour motor oil down street drains, but ok
>>to put just about anything that won't clog a disposal down
>>the drain. Makes no sense. Then again, neither do
>>detergents. But, try and find a good bio-degradable dish
>>soap. I used to be able to buy one at my local
>>supermarket, but no more.

> I've started to see 7th Generation products in local
> stores. How about ordering on-line?

while i'm very fond of 7th Generation, i do have one very
minor caveat... when you call to place an order, if you get
put on 'hold', you will hear the sound of a cheerful bubbling
brook(unless they've changed recently). this is NOT FUN if you
need to go pee...
lee

In rec.food.cooking, wff_ng_7 > wrote:

> I know there are some people that just can't handle garbage disposals and have
> all kinds of bad luck with them. I've never had a problem. My current one is 34
> years old, though I'm only responsible for the last 13 years of its use.


Garbage Disposals are relatively new in NYC. My ex-BIL from Brooklyn is
scared of them. He is haunted by the image of a kid sticking his arm down
while it is running, and imagines that there are razor-sharp blades
inside.

--
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so
certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
-- Bertrand Russel

> wrote:
> In rec.food.cooking, wff_ng_7 > wrote:
>
>> I know there are some people that just can't handle garbage disposals and
>> have
>> all kinds of bad luck with them. I've never had a problem. My current one is
>> 34
>> years old, though I'm only responsible for the last 13 years of its use.
>
>
> Garbage Disposals are relatively new in NYC. My ex-BIL from Brooklyn is
> scared of them. He is haunted by the image of a kid sticking his arm down
> while it is running, and imagines that there are razor-sharp blades
> inside.

It's good to have some fear of them. Whenever I have to retrieve something out
of mine, I go take the fuse for it out of the fuse box. I don't trust the on/off
switch that much.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net