[Kendall Christiansen]

surprise: disposers are factory-tested on frozen steer bones, so can easily handle peach pits – allowing for a bit of noise, of course; perfectly ok to grind bones, as long as they fit w/in the grind chamber and don’t just spin around vertically. mango pods tend to get jammed in the grind chamber because of their size.

[Kendall Christiansen]

Yes, this topic tends to generate alot of misinformation/misperception, vs. looking at the research (e.g., water consumption); it has been a more legit issue with respect to commercial/food service disposers, which conventionally run continuously along with a water feed, but water-control sensors are available that minimize water use when the grind chamber is empty/not engaged….but i digress.
Yes to the overall point that water-laden food waste is heavy to collect and transport – and begs the question of where you want that water to end up; in most cases, it’s not the landfill – and certainly not an incinerator. wastewater treatment plants are best able to capture/process that water.
One option on the commercial side are so-called ‘pulpers’ that extract much of the water from food scraps, leaving a de-watered pulp that’s somewhat lighter to transport, and accelerates the composting process because it’s already pulverized. InSinkErator’s system links a pulper to a disposer for that purpose.
Home composting? most environmental assessments of options give it a slight edge, mostly due to lack of transportation and processing energy. it’s great when it can and does work, but those are both significant barriers; it has its limitations (meats? dairy?) requires space and effort (turning, watering). With most people living in cities, home composting is difficult to consider as a real “systems” solution that will ever amount to much.

[Kendall Christiansen]

Not quite sure why this topic appears on this site, but the basic assertions are significantly misinformed. Food scraps increasingly are regarded as a resource – not waste – suitable for conversion back into clean water, fertilizer products and renewable energy (principally methane via anaerobic e). Given that food averages 70% water, in most cases wastewater treatment plants – in process of being re-branded as resource recovery centers – are best positioned to accomplish those goals, and use of existing underground sewers minimizes use of trucks. Over 60 million household disposers in use in U.S.; with growing international adoption – Stockholm recently removed modest restrictions and is encouraging installation and use; Milwaukee last year initiated campaign to encourage their use, to support its long-time efforts to create fertilizer products and boost biogas production. Public health and sanitation concerns also worth noting; immediate removal of food scraps helps minimize vermin, odors, etc.
And totally misinformed re water use; numerous studies find @ 1 gallon per day – de minimis, in the words of one report. remarkably well-studied issues; can find addtl info and references at http://www.insinkerator.com/green

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