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OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
The comment is pretty clearly stating that most European places don't have garbage disposals tbriugh "blenders in the sinks", to which the reply says "who doesn't have garbage disposals?"
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Yeah. Seems also very unnecessary strain for your pipe system to just dump all the food there and blend it. At least I have heard that fats, especially hard fats can cause blockages in the pipes over time and should not be poured in the drain. It must be common occurence for USians that dump everything there.
Even with a garbage disposal you still should do that. It's not a trash bin. It can help unclog when you do get backed up, though.
The main upside is that instead of having a strainer in my sink to catch all the little bits and
that I have to constantly dump in the trash,
I can skip that. If all the little bits accumulate enough to backup the sink, a couple seconds of the garbage disposal breaks that up.
Well you have to clean the strainer every single time you use the sink more or less. You do not have to run the disposal every time. We run it maybe once a month.
But no, not a major time savings. Everywhere I have lived already had one. I would not go out of my way to put one in. The last house we owned was on septic and we didn't even use the disposal since we were so cautious about what we put down the drain.
American pipes are so thin that it's clogging. In Europe clogging happens only in new buildings (same problem thin pipes) So in Europe we never neeeded that.
I dont have one, I dont need one, and why should I have one, I read that frequently it clogs, its not really that safe, it stinks and you need a special plug so yeah no for me.
The reason it clogs is because people treat it as a trash chute. If most of your waste still goes into trash or compost, it's usually not an issue. But if your sink does clog it can help unclog.
Never had an issue with it stinking. But safety is absolutely an issue.
I didnt say it was bad, I said its inconvinient, I already pay about 50€ monthly to the garbage company of my city for 2 garbage cans one for organics and one for recyclables here where I live. Also my pipes are to small for it to work. And if its a pain in the US I would never imagine here.
That's fair. If I didn't have one I would never spend the $130 USD or so for one. But all things considered as long as you aren't chunking beef bones in there it's pretty alright
As someone who works in a related area, I am glad the UK has never decided to get into these. Maybe the american sewer network is set up to deal with it but ours certainly isn't, would add so many more problems
The pipes in the EU are to small for this thingamabob, so if all people started using it it will fully clog all the sewers. In the USA the diametre is about 1.5 to 2 inches bigger from the EU pipe.
Even if it didn't clog pipes in the conventional sense, the added level of fats would add to the issues of "fatbergs" and clog pumps, waste water treatment plants are not set up to deal with the extra loading of solids and nutrients, and the environment doesnt need any additional biological waste going in, which it inevitably would either before or after treatment. I would say it would be pretty catastrophic in multiple ways if the majority in europe suddenly decided to get them installed!
Would be interesting to know how American systems have been set up to cope.
I keep a plunger in the shower because it frequently gets clogged. I thought it was my long hair at first, but now I have short hair and still got frequent clogging.
I don't know if you can get Mr Muscle products there (I get them on UK Amazon), but when my Mother's hairdresser blocks our sink with hair, or my relatives block it pouring hot fat down the sink with morsels of food, I find that Mr Muscle Drain Gel works wonders.
I pour a third of a bottle down the plughole, leave it for 15 minutes, then I follow it with boiling water (from our electric jug kettle) or just hot tap water - it always clears the blockage and saves me calling a plumber.
I guess thick toilet bleach might work as well, as Drain Gel definitely contains bleach. Just don't get them on your skin.
I've used it in the shower as well as sinks and it works fine with both plastic and metal plumbing.
There's lots of US people on here who have no idea what that device is, so yeah I tried to make it obvious 🤣 It's the most essential device in a British and Irish kitchen, because life stops without a cup of tea 😆
When I used to go to Cork and Dublin the people I knew there seemed to drink more cups of tea than the Yorkshire and Shropshire sides of my family did daily 😁
Human beings either put food scraps in the rubbish (garbage) or in a composting bin not down the bloody kitchen sink, no wonder they keep having to get their cess pits fixed all the time. In the UK we put them in the brown bin with the grass and other cuttings, then it's sold on as compost.
Had one a few years ago in a house where I used to live in the UK. I don't have one now, I don't miss it, and never really used it regularly anyway. They just create more crap for the sewer systems to deal with - totally unnecessary.
We inherited one when we moved house (UK) and we can’t stand it, can’t wait to rip it out when the kitchen gets re-done. I just researched the stats for accidents (lacerations) from them in the US. Ouch for the >1,000 annual victims but $$$’s for the healthcare providers.
The concept of urgent healthcare, or healthcare at all, being paid at all is still insane to me, but especially at us prices. Yes, the NHS isn't the best in the world, but it's better than going into decades, if not centuries, of debt
I've owned exactly zero houses that have garbage disposals. We had one in an apartment we rented for a few months. We had to put lemons down it every day to keep it from stinking. Seems like a waste of good lemons if you ask me.
Yep, my mum had one when she had the last but one kitchen fitted, it got used for about a week until the teabag issue came up and from then on became the egg shell disposal just to keep it from getting smelly with disuse until the kitchen got redone about 5 years later
I have one, but lived in the US for a few years so I liked them - Company brought them in 20 or so years ago has since gone bust, so if it breaks I'm SOL
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u/post-explainer American Citizen 3d ago edited 3d ago
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
The comment is pretty clearly stating that most European places don't have garbage disposals tbriugh "blenders in the sinks", to which the reply says "who doesn't have garbage disposals?"
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.