What does your waste disposal dislike?

TomsMom

In our new kitchen we fitted an Insinkerator waste disposal unit. There's not a list of what you can and can't dispose of with the instructions, just a few pictures and a warning that anything fibrous and corn on the cob shouldn't be put down.

I tend to peel vegs, carrots, potatoes, etc., straight into the half bowl sink under which the unit is situated. I've discovered that my Insinkerator doesn't like onion skins. I found this out at the weekend as when trying to dispose of carrot peelings the water wouldn't drain away. OH unscrewed the waste below the sink, into which the Insinkerator is connected, and there he found this brown mess of what we think was onion skins that we disposed of a few weeks ago.

Does anyone else know of anything to be avoided. What about pineapple skins?

My list so far

OK to dispose:
Potato and carrot peelings
Runner bean trimmings
Banana skins
Melon skin
Leftovers on dinner plate
(haven't had it very long so list is short at the moment!)

Not OK
Onion skins

[Deleted User]

I just had mine taken out. It was a waste of space and I would never have one again

op it dislikes anything with strings such as celery. It loved chicken bones and always but always use lots of running water while the wd is on.

Atelier

I personally throw onion skins down and have not seen a problem.

Although when we first got the WDU we did have a number of blockages. These were generally caused by putting too much down at one go and not running the water for long enough afterwards to wash away the sludge.

I did see a recommendation to put peach stones through it to help keep the interior clean and lemons to keep it fresh.

TomsMom wrote: »

In our new kitchen we fitted an Insinkerator waste disposal unit. There's not a list of what you can and can't dispose of with the instructions, just a few pictures and a warning that anything fibrous and corn on the cob shouldn't be put down.

I tend to peel vegs, carrots, potatoes, etc., straight into the half bowl sink under which the unit is situated. I've discovered that my Insinkerator doesn't like onion skins. I found this out at the weekend as when trying to dispose of carrot peelings the water wouldn't drain away. OH unscrewed the waste below the sink, into which the Insinkerator is connected, and there he found this brown mess of what we think was onion skins that we disposed of a few weeks ago.

Does anyone else know of anything to be avoided. What about pineapple skins?

My list so far

OK to dispose:
Potato and carrot peelings
Runner bean trimmings
Banana skins
Melon skin
Leftovers on dinner plate
(haven't had it very long so list is short at the moment!)

Not OK
Onion skins

TomsMom

Atelier wrote: »

I personally throw onion skins down and have not seen a problem.

Ah, that's interesting. Maybe it wasn't onion skin then, I was just assuming. I'm keeping a check on it now and making sure plenty of water goes down and that it drains away properly.

I'm glad I've got it as we've just gone over to fortnightly collection of food waste in the brown bin in our area and the thought of a bin full of food hanging around for two weeks isn't pleasant! We're not allowed to put food waste in the green bin (also fortnightly) yet the blue bin for paper/glass/cans is collected weekly. Everyone round here would rather have the food waste collected weekly and the blue bin fortnightly but of course we're just the ratepayers!

Thanks Kittie for mentioning the chicken bones, OH was a bit wary and he wrapped them for the food bin. Will it take every bit of the bones once you've broken the carcasse up?

aliasojo

Mine is a Franke and it swallows just about anything, (including celery and oinion skins ). In fact I cant think of anything food wise that we have had to bin. Best piece of advice we got was to make sure the water is running at reasonable force and not just a little....the water helps push the food through and as long as you leave the water on for a while after you switch the wd off, you shouldn't have problems. (15 seconds sticks in my head.)

Atelier

When I was investigating buying a WDU, I did notice that some of the councils were offering a "cashback" ranging from £30 to £80 for people who installed a new WDU.

My guess is that it saves them money in the longterm by reducing the amount of landfill they require.

Always worth looking if anyone is thinking of installing one :-)

macman

Atelier wrote: »

When I was investigating buying a WDU, I did notice that some of the councils were offering a "cashback" ranging from £30 to £80 for people who installed a new WDU.

My guess is that it saves them money in the longterm by reducing the amount of landfill they require.

Always worth looking if anyone is thinking of installing one :-)

But surely all the WDU sludge that ends up having to be filtered out at the sewage works is going to end up in landfill anyway?
Why not just put your veg peelings on the compost heap?

Atelier

I agree but you need a mixture of content in a compost heap and if osmeone is producing only veg peelings then there is a limit to how much they can compost.

Also you should not put cooked food on a compost heap.

FYI Organic waste in sewage is filtered out and becomes fertiliser.

There is no right answer but WDU can be considered better than bin and composting better that WDU

macman wrote: »

But surely all the WDU sludge that ends up having to be filtered out at the sewage works is going to end up in landfill anyway?
Why not just put your veg peelings on the compost heap?

juno

We had one years ago, and it didn't seem to like teaspoons

TomsMom

macman wrote: »

But surely all the WDU sludge that ends up having to be filtered out at the sewage works is going to end up in landfill anyway?
Why not just put your veg peelings on the compost heap?

When working properly the WDU grinds everything so small that the "sludge" is actually just like soup so it's more liquid than anything that would end up in landfill.

Also, not everyone has a compost heap or has room for one. Our garden is basically a pocket handkerchief, a slabbed patio with tiny flower borders. In these circumstances a WDU seems to be a better solution than a fortnightly food waste collection which can end up smelly and with the potential to attract flies/rats for those not particular about their bins.

mattymoo

Got an older one by Newman Tonks (must be around 12 years old now). Dislikes fatty meat, egg shells (don't know why but they seem to stick in the pipework) and melon seeds - they rattle around for ages.

I did put a drain rodding point in at the point where the waste pipe emerges from the wall before entering the drain. Allows me to use a drain auger to clear any built up debris or flush through with a hose pipe.

A good large sink plunger can also help clear it. Have one that is like a handle with a plastic bellows affair below instead of the usual rubber cup.