Is a waste disposal unit green or not?

breadmonkey

We have a waste disposal unit in our sink. It basically chews up waste and it ends up in the same pipes as the water going down the sink.

We dispose of pretty much 100% of organic waste this way meaning less landfill waste is going into the black bin. But consequently, we're adding to the waste load at the water treatment plant which requires lots of chemicals, machinery etc. to treat. So which is worse?

CJhaughey

Those grinders are a disaster, they increase the workload on the the waste water plant by a huge amount.
You should compost or use a brown bin.

wondering

dont know how wuch you know/or want to know about waste water treatment plants (WWTP).

1.your basically messing with the the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) this is the amount of oxygen that bacteria need to break down the waste.
2.also creating additional problems for filtering /screening the liquid waste.

the oxygen demand required to break down sewage is known (well sort of) and this ammount of oxygen provided to the bacteria via air pumps.

I might be wrong in saying this but i think that the volume of wastewater being processed by most treatment plants (large) compaired to the volume of liquid waste that comes from this form of waste disposal unit (small) may make for a significant dilution. However as more and more people opt for this type of waste disposal the lacal waste water treatment plant is going to see huge problems.

to conclude, waste disposal units, not so green

does anyone know how the US WWTPs coap with this waste disposal technique? any add ons to the regular WWTP or is it the same?

10-10-20

They are a bad idea.
They simply move the waste disposal issue away from the bin and down the drain. It then still has to be treated as waste through the use of resources listed above.

Go green. Dump it. (in an environmentally friendly way)

breadmonkey

CJhaughey wrote: »

Those grinders are a disaster, they increase the workload on the the waste water plant by a huge amount.
You should compost or use a brown bin.

I think we're getting a brown bin soon actually. How do you know that these grinders cause a huge increase in workload?

10-10-20 wrote: »

They are a bad idea.
They simply move the waste disposal issue away from the bin and down the drain. It then still has to be treated as waste through the use of resources listed above.

But is the extra work done by the treatment plant less damaging than the pollution associated with putting it in the landfill?

And FWIW I do know a reasonable amount about waste treatment.

CJhaughey

breadmonkey wrote: »

I think we're getting a brown bin soon actually. How do you know that these grinders cause a huge increase in workload?

It stands to reason, wastewater plants are designed to deal with just that, wastewater, adding extra biological waste in the form of semi ground organic matter places extra demand on all processes in the plant from filtration to breaking the solids down.

breadmonkey

CJhaughey wrote: »

It stands to reason, wastewater plants are designed to deal with just that, wastewater, adding extra biological waste in the form of semi ground organic matter places extra demand on all processes in the plant from filtration to breaking the solids down.

Indeed but I don't see how this proves that it's worse than simply dumping the stuff in a landfill. I'm not trying to be a bollox here btw, just looking for some sort of evidence.

Poochie05

I came across this:
http://www.epa.ie/downloads/pubs/research/waste/name,25646,en.html
Haven't read it fully but it sounds as if it may have considered your question.

breadmonkey

Yep, looks like they're bad news all right. Better get yours before they get banned! :pac: