As a restaurant, you have to throw out lots of food. But there are certain items you should never put in a garbage disposal. Here’s your guide to what not to put in a garbage disposal.
Thank goodness for your hungriest patron. Your garbage disposal is ready to swallow down every scrap you offer up.
It growls down today’s special, and it’s ready for more. There are just a few things you need to do to keep it in top shape. One of the most important things is to deprive your disposal of anything which renders it useless.
Easy, right? Everyone knows not to put silverware down the chute. But, there are also everyday foods which can cause expensive replacement and emergency plumber calls. And, resulting can be nipped in the bud, too.
Here’s a list of what not to put in a garbage disposal.
Bones
Whether its cooked or raw meat with bones, your garbage disposal will merely toss it around at high speed. After all, your disposal is not that kind of grinder. And, if the bone splinters in the process, it can freeze the moving parts.
Grease and Oil
If you’ve seen coagulated grease or oil after cooling off, you are witness to the substance it becomes in the garbage disposal. It cools from running water and clogs the system on impact.
Pasta
Pasta’s job is to soak up water. And, it keeps doing its job long after it stops cooking. The water from the tap will expand starchy noodles. The result is the consistency of homemade paste which attaches like a magnet to the disposal.
Fruit Pits
Avocados, peaches, and mangoes have pits that are strong enough to be a weapon. Just like bones, if your garbage disposal is eventually able to grind up a pit, it is going to suffer injuries in the process.
Pits can bend or break blades from being catapulted around the works. And next, you’ll replace your garbage disposal.
Asparagus
This vegetable is full healthy fiber. And, all that fiber can wrap itself around all the moving parts of your garbage disposal. Too much of it will render your equipment clogged and stuck.
Celery
A common myth is that it takes more calories to chew the vegetable than it contains. If chewing it is hard work for us, imagine how difficult it is for a garbage disposal. We can swallow the stringy remnants, but a machine can’t.
The result is a green slime which blocks machinery and smells as bad as it looks.
Corn Husks
Strong enough to form and bake a tamale, corn husks are meant to protect fragile kernels from mother nature. Even a garbage disposal can’t get through these sturdy peels. It will grind them to a pulpy mess which won’t go down the pipes.
Coffee Grounds
It seems like a no-brainer to send something that is already ground up down the garbage disposal. And, they seem to slide right down with no effort. However, if you have ever noticed the sludge at the bottom of your latte, that’s what coffee grounds do in your pipes.
They continue to sponge up water, and the sludge will clog pipes like nobody’s business.
Lettuce
Lettuce leaves, once they are wet, will not grind up in a garbage disposal. Just as they stick to the sides of the sink, they will likewise stick to moving parts and pipes.
As they start to decompose, just the smell alone should signal something’s wrong. They belong in a compost pile where their smelly remnants can be something good.
Onion Skins
Not only do the skins make us cry, but they are also fibrous enough to tangle around the garbage disposal’s motor and jam it up for good. And, the accompanying water turns them into a mushy mess of vines.
Potato Peels
The Thanksgiving nightmare: the oft-told stories of pesky potato peels that shut down every drain in the kitchen. The starchy mush is not forgiving, and will gum the garbage disposal until a professional cleans it all out.
Carrots
Carrot peelings are also guilty of causing havoc during food prep. These veggies are capable of sticking to everything they touch including disposal motor and pipes.
Egg Shells
Put eggshells in your house plant’s soil for nutrition. Do not put them in your garbage disposal. There is a long-standing myth that they help sharpen the blades of the disposal. Wrong. Once ground, they become like sand. And this will clog up drains quickly.
Oatmeal
Just like pasta and rice, oatmeal sucks up water and morphs into a pasty mess. Though it will get past the blades of a garbage disposal, it will then stick to pipes.
Nuts
Ground up nuts and water help make peanut butter. So, imagine peanut butter in your disposal’s motor. The running water helps to make it stiffer, rendering blades and pipes as hostages.
Trash
It’s called a garbage disposal after all, right? And, of course, there are those who take the name at face value. Plumbers who have repaired or replaced disposals have found paper, metal, sponges, and fabric inside the disposal and pipes. Customers have sometimes remarked they just wanted to see if it would work.
Shells
Shells from fish, lobster, and shrimp are famous for the being the last thing put down the disposal before a clogged drain. What follows is a bubbling sink full of water with a distinct smell. Ew.
Gum
It’s easy to scrape the plate of a patron who left their gum behind into the disposal. And, no one wants to touch that. But, if you’ve seen how long gum lasts under tables and on sidewalks, you know that it has eternal life.
Wherever it ends up in your garbage disposal, it’s there forever.
Post This List of What Not to Put in a Garbage Disposal
Of course, you want to keep your restaurant up and running. Train your staff on what not to put in a garbage disposal, and you’ll keep it clean and running for years.
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