Are Food Waste Disposers Bad For the Environment?

October 25th, 2007

Sinks, Taps & Water

The environmental and lifestyle benefits of putting it down the sink.

Unlike popular belief, food waste disposers are an efficient, economical, environmentally friendly and hygienic way to dispose of foodwaste. The following points illustrate our point:

Water Usage

• Food waste disposal units are NOT water guzzlers. Unlike other household appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines, food waste disposal units use very little water.
• An independent study determined that food waste disposers use less than 6 litres a day. This is a fraction of the daily average household water consumption.
• In fact, the average water consumption of a food waste disposal unit is the equivalent to 0.1 washes of a 4.5 star washing machine.
• A 4 minute shower uses as much as an food waste disposal unit would in 11 days.

Greenhouse Emissions from Food Waste Disposer Operation

• The household average daily power consumption of an food waste disposers is equivalent to the operation of an 60W light globe for 9.7 minutes or an LCD TV for three minutes.
• A recent life cycle analysis showed that food waste disposers combined with a waste treatment plan was the cheapest option for disposing of food scraps and gave off the lowest emissions.
• Using food waste disposal units to dispose of food scraps gives off less greenhouse gases than putting the scraps in landfill.

Impact on Sewerage System

• A half-century of international studies indicate food waste disposers do not overload or place pressure on the sewerage system.
• The greatest contribution to wastewater discharge from an average household is from the bath/shower (33%), followed by the toilet (31%) and laundry (23%). These are significantly greater than that from the average food waste disposal unit (1%).
• The connection of one household unit to the sewer system is equivalent to about 110 additional food waste disposal units.

Composting

• Composting is not the only environmentally friendly method to dispose of food scraps.
• Food waste disposers can complement the compost pile. Certain items including meat, fish, and dairy products should not be composted due to health risks, but can be put down a disposer.
• Almost all food waste can be put down a disposal unit including bones, prawn and egg shells.

Other Information

• A food waste disposal unit can dramatically reduce the volume of waste going as land-fill by up to 50%.
• Food scraps attract attract pests like cockroaches, flies, ants, rats and mice. These machines dispose of food waste instantly, they reduce the likelihood of pests being attracted to the kitchen or garbage area
• Food waste disposers help avoid the issue of smelly bins, as all wet food waste is disposed of immediately and not left in a bin till collection day

In case you are now thinking of purchasing a food waste disposer, Appliances Online have a range of InSinkErators available for sale, at the lowest prices.