Trash-Talking The Garbage Disposal: Examination Of A Not So Green US Export
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 02.26.08
Know how companies will sometimes advertise a product as "recyclable," even if it seldom gets fully recycled because of some small design issue, or because recycling centers see disassembly as too labor intensive?
An analogous situation has emerged with InSinkErator, famed US maker of under-the-kitchen-sink garbage disposals. The company, moving in on European markets with claims of garbage disposals being "green," indicates that 'use of garbage disposals beneficially cancels the need to haul organic trash to the dump' - here we go with the carbon footprint posing - and points out that garbage disposal use makes it possible for wastewater treatment plants to generate more bio-gas fueled electricity.
Only a very small fraction of sewered kitchens in North America or Europe discharge to wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) with operating, full scale, bio-gas capture facilities. And, we see no evidence of a strong movement toward municipalities installing bio-gas fired generators on central wastewater treatment plants.
Conversely, there is a very strong movement toward capture of landfill-produced bio-gas in North America. Hence, a case can be made for sending more kitchen waste to the tip, at least in the US.
The Wall Street Journal story on this topic slightly glosses over the very serious prospective water quality and taxpayer impacts of widely increased garbage disposal use. Here's what we mean.
All existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were designed based on a locally representative daily average, per-capita loading of biological oxygen demand (BOD). Adding a large component of new garbage disposals means a much higher BOD load - and increased capital and operating expense. Most large communities and all cities are served by publicly owned treatment works - all built at taxpayer expense.
Rapid market penetration of garbage disposals in European cities would overwhelm existing treatment plants, possibly causing them to violate their discharge permits and have adverse impacts on effluent receiving waters.
We could elaborate on unfair tax impacts on citizens who choose not to go the under-sink disposal route; and, on 'water quality limited' stream segments which are vital for survival of salmon. But...we think you see the Effluent In The Room.
After struggling for decades to get a foothold outside of the U.S., the lowly garbage disposal is picking up some new fans: environmental engineers and local government planners. InSinkErator, a Racine, Wis., unit of Emerson Electric Co., has been lobbying local governments in Europe and in parts of Asia in the hope of altering the perception that garbage disposals are a water-guzzling convenience that can clog pipes and overtax sewage-treatment plants.
...The green strategy has helped InSinkErator to nearly double its world-wide sales in the past decade to close to $500 million annually, say people familiar with the situation. The company, which still accounts for a small fraction of Emerson Electric's yearly revenue of about $22 billion, now sells more than 100,000 disposals in Europe each year.
Fortunately, clever Swedes and Londoners seem to have found a prospective solution and are pushing ahead with prototypes.
In Malmö, Sweden, a government-sponsored project designed to be environmentally sustainable includes more than 200 disposals in apartment buildings. The disposals aren't linked to sewer lines, but to a separate system for turning food scraps into methane, which is then burned to produce power. A similar system is under consideration for a proposed 2,000-home development in London.
Fair notice: This writer owns a small garbage disposal which came with the house, and enjoys having it, if only for the service it provides in the three coldest months of the year, when backyard composting is infeasible.
In past years, when all organic waste was put on the frozen-solid compost heap, it attracted rats. This was not acceptable for us; nor was it good for our neighbors.
This experience led to the insight that the marketing of garbage disposals should not be viewed as a good versus bad (green vs greed) issue.
Our household manages winter-season organic waste by putting the bulk of it in the trash, using the small InSinkErator for the few food bits that get by our pick up after peeling and chopping. After mid-April, it all gets diverted to the compost heap until the first hard frost of fall arrives.
As a general matter, wastewater treatment plants serving cities in temperate climates have the least difficulty handling organic materials in the coldest months of the year. So we are not so worried about our water quality impact.
Back to a higher level issue view:
We all need to recognize that, in the USA, WWTPs were built with the financial aid packages overseen by states, but largely stemming from Congressional appropriations authorized in concert with Clean Water Act requirements of the mid-1970's. That's ancient environmental history!
These aged WWTPs almost all are in need of major upgrades, as they are approaching the ends of their respective design lives. In some cases, municipal population growth has greatly outraced treatment capacity, and things are being held together with paper clips. Now is the time to decide, then. In the USA:
Kitchen garbage disposals: good; or bad?
Necessary WWTP upgrades: should Congress or US states offer incentives, or disincentives, for garbage disposals?
Wonder if InSinkErator Corp is willing to ally with NGO's to lobby the US Congress for the necessary appropriations to upgrade municipal WWTPs.
Europe and Asia, we'll wait to hear from you.
Via WSJ Online Going Global By Going Green, Garbage-Disposal Maker Finds Environmental Pitch Sinks In in Europe, Asia Image credit::Road School, Max Testing The Garbage Disposal
I've been wrestling with this since we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago. Our sink is pre-wired for a disposal unit and I even have one new in the box sitting in the garage. However, we have a compost bin which gets 98% of our food scraps - including in the winter since our bin is fully enclosed to prevent rodent foraging. The little bit that gets by the drain strainer is too small for the disposal to be any good, so why bother installing it?
Could we have some links to the methane producing building in Malmo and the proposal in London?
Could we have some links to the methane producing building in Malmo and the proposal in London?
San Francisco is one of, if not the only, large U.S. city to have curbside organic scrap collection for composting. I know that some of the sewage sludge ends up being used for compost... but there are problems associated with chemicals/drugs that end up in the waste stream. By collecting it via curb pickup, SF gets a very environmentally friendly source of compost. I believe residents can even pick up loads for free. One wonders about the economics and energy efficiency, however.
Using a garbage disposal doesn't cut down on the need to haul organic waste to the landfill, because that organic material and any other non water soluble trash is filtered out at the treatment plant and brought to the landfill anyway. That combined with the added electricity and water and it doesn't seem like a green solution, except for that electricity generating idea underway in Sweden. Apartment dwellers, renters and cold climate folks can compost with a small portable bin of worms year round.
I am a VERY keen composter in York, UK, and recently attended a meeting of Master Composter Scheme organisers (organised by Garden Organic) and was baffled to see some literature from one local authority promoting under-sink waste disposal units as a method to reduce the volume of material going to landfill, specifically the very biodegradable/water-rich fraction which is heavy and costs a lot to drive to the landfill, costs a lot to put in landfill and emits methane when in landfill....
The local authority person explained that the water treatment works dealt with the biodegradable matter efficiently and it was more efficient to have it transported by water in gravity-driven pipes rather than driven places using fuel.
They still reccommended home composting as the primary method of disposal/recycling, but stuff like cooked food (some authorities say not to put this on compost heaps) should be recycled via the waste disposal unit.
My own opinion is to take responsibility for ALL ones 'waste' materials, making them a resource, and cooked food/meat etc does compost and there are rodent-proof methods, and insulated compost heaps for cold climates, or wormeries for inside garages/bathrooms if very cold....
There's a composting solution for every problem!!!
John Cossham, York, UK
THE PRINCIPAL REASON AS YOU KNOW AND MENTION IS THAT WASTEWATER IS STILL NOT COMPLETELY RECUPERATED IN ALL ITS POTENTIALITIES.
HOWEVER THERE ARE ALREADY IN EUROPE PLANTS THAT RECUPERATE THE SLUDGE TO PRODUCE ENERGY,
I MYSELF HAVE BEEN TRYING FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS TO CAPTURE THE PORTUGUESE MUNICIPALITIES ATTENTION FOR THE VALUE OF THE SINK DISPOSERS FROM THE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMICAL POINT OF VIEW,
THE REALITY IS THAT ENTITIES ARE CONVINCED THAT PEOPLE WILL NOT APPLY THE SINK DISPOSERS AND ANYWAY THEY WOULD HAVE TO TREAT THE ORGANIC FROM THE GARDENS, PARKS, ETC, AND THIS WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH TO PRODUCE ENERGY.
MORE , WATER SLUDGE IMPLIES HIGH COST TO DRY IT.
BUT WHY DO YOU PROMOTE ONLY SINKERATOR WHEN THERE ARE OTHER AMERICAN AND CHINESE SIMILAR DEVICES?