Environmental Issues Concerning In-Sink Waste Disposal

All over the world, there are different sources of garbage. To effectively dispose of garbage produced from different sources, it is paramount to approach the matter in several ways. You will agree that there is no particular solution for dealing with the entire garbage problem. Different solutions for waste management go a long way to contribute to environmental conservation. One of the ways of dealing with food waste for instance, involves trucking to landfills.

When food waste is disposed of in landfills and burnt, they emit gases. Food scraps in landfills decompose very fast giving out methane gas. Methane is far worse that carbon dioxide when it comes trapping of heat in the atmosphere. Additionally, the food waste produces acidic liquid that easily find its way into underground. It shows that even though landfill is an option for food disposal, it is not as effective for environmental conservation.

Food waste and in-sink disposal

Even though the idea of home composting sounds nice when done properly, it may not always work in all situations. For instance, in urban centers where too many people are crowded, it may not suffice as an effective way for managing wastes. Adding in-sink disposal will help home composting be more effective in waste management.

You may wonder what happens to the food waste that goes down the drain. Statistically, almost 70% of the food that goes down the drain is water. This means that the remaining 30% is solid food. As the water reaches the entrance to the water treatment plant, the solid food waste is screened and directed to landfills. In the landfills, they readily decompose in the absence of oxygen giving out methane gas. Therefore, it is paramount for landfills to have installed gas collection chambers to harness methane and put it into use instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere.

Clogging and the in-sink disposer

Clogging is one of the issues that is triggered by food waste, especially when they have unsaturated fats. These fats easily solidify in the pipes at room temperature resulting to clogging. In fact, clogging causes sewer overflow in urban centers. As a consequence, untreated sewage ends up in water bodies after being diverted from the main water treatment plant. Although in-sink disposer is partly a good solution for green waste removal, a lot of water is required to effectively convey food through the pipes. The water needed for pumping, of course, has to come from somewhere. Survey indicates that a lot of energy – electricity and gas – is used to pump water and waste water.

It is important to conserve the environment so everyone can have a good place for living. If the question of dealing with too much food waste crosses your mind, you may consider home composting alongside in-sink disposer. There may be small issues here and there but at the end of the day, all that matters is making progressive steps to protect the environment. The in-sink disposer may not be ideal when you want to get rid of food waste. However, when you add a good automatic composting machine, you will have a better outcome.