Help us discuss this matter - garbage disposal

[underpants]

Okay so we just got a new garbage disposal. The old one never worked and started leaking. Installed today.

My wife says - just let food go down it and let the disposal chew it up.
I say - keep the screen thing on it. It only takes a few seconds to dump it out.

What say you?

[LisaL]

1. I say you are correct.

I have a newer disposal but if I don't remove big chunks of food it keeps getting stuck.

[Ocelot II]

2. I do what you suggest.

Leaving the screen over the drain keeps things from going down into the disposal that you don't want down there. Like spoons. I rinse the screen into the drain and let the disposal chew up the small bits; the big chunks go into the compost bin if vegetable matter; garbage if not.

[underpants]

11. It has been decided. Screen. Spoons was the closer.

Thank you.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Septic systems don't need to be fed ground garbage

So much nice stuff to compost if you have a garden.

[Nittersing]

4. I'm a keep-the-screen person

Just replaced my sewer line.

I avoid as much food bits as possible.

[PoliticAverse]

5. Tell her the screen thing keeps her from having her wedding ring destroyed...

when it falls in the sink.

[Polly Hennessey]

6. Keep the screen on.

[Lars39]

7. Gotta control access to the maw!

Got a spoon chewed up once. Not fun.

[Pobeka]

8. In 30 years, only have had 1 unwanted thing in the disposal.

A small binder clip. Have no idea how it got in there. It took 20 minutes to get it out, one person on the top, one on the bottom (careful with the jokes )

We don't use the screen, find it more trouble than it's worth.

Probably it depends on your personal habits of how you use your sink.

[abqtommy]

9. The garbage disposal here in my apartment died years ago and I've never requested

that it be replaced. I keep a screen in the sink and scrape all the dirty dishes into the
trash can before washing. And some further advice I learned long ago:

Don't put the well too close to the midden!

[ruet]

10. When I Lived With My Mum,...

(in the early 90s) I bought her the most powerful disposal in existence. When she passed I put it under my sink. I throw almost everything that isn't fibrous down it and it doesn't even break a sweat. My wife has an episode every time she sees me do it.

[MOMFUDSKI]

12. My husband also bought/installed THE BEAST

as he has a real eye/appreciation for quality. We are quite careful with our silverware going down into the disposal so it is not a problem. No screen for me except when I peel carrots and potatoes. Back in 1968 my 2-yr old daughter tossed pennies in (I did not see it happen) and the apartment super was really pissed. Shoulda had a screen in . . . .

[Kali]

13. it's not the disposal

it's the plumbing

[MissB]

14. Option C

No garbage disposal.

The sewage treatment plant would be better off without the extra loading.

But more than that, it would deprive my Bokashi bin of some good material.

And let me tell you about the former house, a babysitter, garbage disposal, pistachio shells and diaper wipes….

[hunter]

15. I'd leave it in. But we don't have a disposal any more.

Our disposal broke years ago at a rough time in our lives when my wife was in and out of the hospital and we had no money. I took the broken garbage disposal out, replacing it with a simple drain. I think that cost about twelve dollars in parts and a lot of cussing by me.

Remarkably we haven't had any clogged plumbing since. When we had the garbage disposal blockages used to be a regular problem, and not just at the sink. I didn't associate those other blockages with the garbage disposal.

My wife's a vegetarian and I'm mostly a vegetarian. When I cook a meal with fish or other meat, usually when my wife's away at work, our dogs get any leftovers. We compost any other food waste for our garden.

I installed a new garbage disposal at my wife's parent's house last year that's pretty nice. It's smaller, quieter, and more powerful than the one it replaced. Yeah, I tried to convince them that a garbage disposal was unnecessary when their old disposal broke, but I was not successful. We bought the new one for them as a gift, and maybe as a bit of apology for my anti-garbage-disposal evangelism.