Hawkeyes Neighborhood Watch

Use Your Disposal Instead of Throwing Food Scraps in the Trash

From Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District (MMSD)

The average family of four generates 36 poiunds of food waste each week, or nearly 2000 pounds a year.

Don't send your leftovers to a landfill.  Grind them up and send them down the drain to MMSD to be recycled into energy and fertilizer--saving money for all of us.

What can and cannot be put into a disposal?

The standard disposal can handle basic food scraps.  However, avoid large amounts at one time.

Newer disposals can grind much more, like bones, cornhusks, artichokes and celery.

Standard Garbage Disposal

  *  Everyday food scraps

  *  Vegetable peels (ok in small amounts)

Disposal With Advanced Grind Features

  *  Everyday food scraps

  *  Vegetable peels

  *  Celery, corn husks, artichokes and other fibrous materials

  *  Bones, fruit pits and other hard materials

NEVER put fats, oils or grease down the drain.  They can lead to basement backups, sewer overflows and expensive

plumbing repair bills.  Instead, pour grease into a container and throw it in the trash.

How it pays to use your disposal:

Food waste fuels lower sewer bills.  Food scraps produce methane gas that MMD captures and turns into power to run our facilities. We also use food scraps to help make a fertilizer called Milorganite that's sold around the country.

  *  Food waste is mostly water, so it makes perfect sense to grind it up in a disposal and send to our water reclamation facilities.

  *  Food disposals use less than 1% of a household's total water consumption and averages less than 50 cents a   year        in electricity to operate.  Commercial disposers use about 12 cents of electricity a day.

DID YOU KNOW?

  *  Last year more than 13 million tons of food scraps were sent to landfills in the U.S.

  *  Modern disposals grind food to less than 1/4 inch in size, so it's safe for household, restaurant and municipal pipes.

  *  When using a disposal, run cold water down the drain for a few seconds afterward to flush food waste through the plumbing 

      system and keep debris from settling in the pipes.