You may have a garbage disposal for kitchen waste. This doesn’t mean your garbage disposal is a catch-all for anything that fits. If you’ve ever spent time trying to plunge a garbage disposal full of potato peelings, then you understand what we are talking about. You can’t put just anything down your garbage disposal.Grease and fats are no good for your garbage disposal because they can harden once they cool off. While the hot grease may go down your garbage disposal easily, it can collect in the disposal and build up.
Grease clogs are a mess to clean up, and they create clogs deep in your pipes that are difficult to handle. Call AAA Service if you can’t seem to get your water to flow freely down the drain.
Fibrous foods, such as vegetable peelings, aren’t good for your garbage disposal either. The fiber can get caught up in the garbage disposal blades, causing the disposal to stop working.
Do not reach your hand into the garbage disposal to remove vegetable peel fibers. You can do serious damage to your hand if the disposal suddenly starts running again.
Eggshells are also a problem for your garbage disposal. While you may have been told that the shells will actually clean your blades, the membrane within the egg can clog the disposal.
Other foods that will hurt your garbage disposal include:
- celery because of the long fibers
- pasta because it expands in water
- coffee grounds because they sit at the bottom of the drains
If you are in doubt about an item, throw your food item in the trash instead. If you have bones and you are worried about the carcass of an animal smelling up your kitchen, put the remains in a tight plastic bag and throw them away instead. Save your garbage disposal from getting destroyed.
