This just sounds like a whole lot of ridiculousness to me. And just plain dirty and smelly on top of that.

It always amazes me how LITTLE research is actually required before the city council makes decisions… any business that acted in that matter would be out of business in no time.

“A lot of us are used to modern conveniences. It’s like saying, ‘You can’t use your dishwasher. You’ll have to hand-wash your dishes,’” Buxton said, noting his store sells 10 to 40 disposals a week.”

Don’t give them any ideas!

This is absolutely absurd. Hell, wouldn’t surprise me if processed fibrous vegetable matter didn’t help scrub out some of the grease from the sewer lines. In no way does this do anything to stop their chief complaint.

I too think this is a little absurd. Was the garbage disposal the enabler of putting grease down the drain? Probably not. How does banning garbage disposals keep people from throwing grease down the drain? Stupid if you ask me.

Been meaning to start composting again but got out of the habit. Guess I need get back into that routine.

The way I read this, it’s only illegal to INSTALL disposals? Raleigh businesses can still sell them and residents can still buy them?

I predict an surge in black market garbage disposal installations. Working with “local plumbers and contractors” won’t accomplish anything. When you buy a garbage disposal, they come with instructions. This is completely unenforceable.

I’m still incensed. This is a ridiculous, draconian, wrong-headed law. I doubt it will fix any of the problems with Raleigh’s sewers.

This is a weird, out-of-the-blue ordinance. Usually in larger cities garbage disposals are discouraged in order to limit the food supply for sewer rats. I wasn’t aware this is a huge issue in Raleigh. Certainly not to the scale of New York and other large, old Northeastern cities. Seems to me the city needs to establish a decent composting plan before taking this extreme step. Of course composting doesn’t do anybody much good during a drought when its illegal to water a garden. Oh, there’s another thought. How about a useful sewer program, like purple-pipe reclaimed water for watering of gardens. This wouldn’t be affected by a drought. Oh, wait, yeah, that requires some foresight.

Unfortunately, this is not a surprise, but very stinky. The Meeker regime, also, during 20 years of unprecedented growth in Raleigh, failed to add any additional water sources or reservoirs, thereby putting the “D” in drought for the city of Raleigh. Yet, thought nothing of taking a million dollars from the discretionary fund & throwing it at the Fayetteville Street project. Let’s stop the stupidity & get a new mayor for this great city before it’s too late.

Yet-another way by some city leaders – I’d like to believe there are some voices of common sense in the council – to dictate the rest of us how to live our lives. I am sure there are cases where some control needs to be in place, but garage disposals shouldn’t be on the top of the list. Unless some of our city leaders get kick-backs from garbage disposals manufacturers… Raleigh residents will go out there and buy 2-3 units and have them for the future :LOL:

I wholly agree that Meeker is lousy leader. I have not liked him since he first put his name in the hat for the job.

However, something needs to be done. I’m not 100% sold that this is the answer but I do know that I have a disposal that I don’t use. The most it ever sees is 1/2 a lime or lemon to freshen it up.

If your scraps smell, freeze them until garabage day then throw them out.

I’m with Raleighbob. Time to start composting again.

While I do think this is a ridiculous, unenforceable rule – if my garbage disposal broke, I would just go right outside town and buy one and have a handy friend put it in for me – I don’t really think Meeker’s done a bad job. The city has faced insane growth during his time. Of course, it is silly we have a smaller water supply than other local cities with much smaller populations – ok maybe he’s not doing so great. But didn’t he run unopposed in last election?

And I actually disagree about garbage pickup too. Twice a week garbage pickup seems too frequent. Do most places have twice a week? I’m not sure since I’ve lived here all my life. I also think the addition of more items to recycling is a huge step forward.

I’m beginning to think the people on the city council don’t really want their jobs any more. They enacted this unanimously.

If we need to upgrade the sewer system, I’d rather the city issue bonds and do it than impose new regulations that make everybody’s lives a little bit worse.

This is ridiculous. Its time for Meeker & Company to go. This is outrageous government intrusion which rivals a communist regime. I’m sick and tired of Meeker deciding what’s best for me and my family. This was handled as underhandedly as Mike Easley’s push through of the Lottery when one lawmaker was literally on his death bed — and another was out of town on his honeymoon. Where is the public voice? I can only hope and pray this begins the movement to remove this tree-hugging idiot from office.

Well I think there needs to be some facts in this discourse, other than knee-jerk partisan criticism.

From greenerchoices.org: “Waste from garbage disposers can overburden old municipal sewage systems. Garbage disposers can double the volume of nonliquid material that goes down the drain, displacing food waste from land to water. Each person in the U.S. discards about 300 pounds of food per year. Many sewer systems around the country are more than 100 years old and operating beyond their design capacity–resulting in more than 40,000 overflows of sewage treatment systems each year. When these old systems fail, they can release raw sewage containing high levels of nitrogen, chemical contaminants, and microbial pathogens into local waterways–causing harm to ecosystems, animals and humans.”
Also “A disposer uses more water. While garbage disposers are not going to have a large impact on your household’s electricity use, they do require running water to move the waste down the drain—about 700 gallons per year.”

I grew up learning that you throw food scraps in the trash (or nowadays…compost it). Garbage disposers were primarily for when you rinsed off little bits of food still stuck to the dishes, and wanted to make sure it all got down through.
If everyone still used their disposers in that manner, then this issue probably would have never come up. But it’s amazing the number of people who use it as a trash receptacle and throw potato peelings, vegetable scraps and Lord knows what else down there!
Basically, some bad apples have ruined it for everyone else. I can’t really blame the City Council. Given all these facts, I would have voted the same way.

Given that we’ve all had 9 years to think about this, I hardly think those who object are having a “knee-jerk” reaction.

This is what really blows me away (from the City of Raleigh’s eNews email today):

“Violators will be issued a notice of violation and a civil penalty assessment of up to $25,000 per day, and possibly incur a temporary or permanent interruption of water and sewer services.”

I have to believe that’s a typo? $25,000/day would put a lot of folks in solid debt right quick…

This is typical of “Charlie the Red” and his henchmen of “commissars”. One more chance for them to circumvent private property rights while we sleep. How much more will they try to dictate to us. Come on, Raleigh! Wake up!!

It is amazing how many people do not know how to use a garbage disposal. This Thanksgiving, my wife showed me that some take the name “garbage disposal” quite literally. She ground up a bunch of potato peels, and clogged up the sink. I had to teach her the lesson that I was taught growing up — the diposal is only used to grind up the minor food scraps that you rinse off your plate after you threw the larger scraps in the trash.

Perhaps Raleigh can create a poster campaign to train disposal users, which is similar to the poster campaign for locking your car. Perhaps it can say
“Toss the scraps”
“Rinse the plate”
“Run the disposer”

Just a thought…

These are the complete instructions from the Insinkerator 777 instruction manual:

DO…
• First turn on a moderate to strong flow of cold water and then turn on the disposer. Continue running cold water for 15 seconds after grinding is completed to flush the drain line.
• Grind hard materials such as small bones, fruit pits, and ice. A scouring action is created by the particles inside the grind chamber.
• Grind peelings from citrus fruits to freshen up drain smells.
• Use a disposer cleaner, degreaser, or deodorizer as necessary to relieve objectionable odors caused by grease build-up.

DON’T…
• Don’t pour grease or fat down your disposer or any drain. It can build up in pipes and cause drain blockages. Put grease in a jar or can and dispose in the trash.
• Don’t use hot water when grinding food waste. It is OK to drain hot water into the disposer between grinding periods.
• Don’t fill disposer with a lot of vegetable peels all at once. Instead, turn the water and disposer on first and then feed the peels in gradually.
• Don’t grind extremely fibrous materials like corn husks, artichokes, etc., to avoid possible drain blockage.
• Don’t turn off disposer until grinding is completed and only sound of motor and water is heard.
• Don’t be alarmed if a brown discoloration appears on the face of the grinding disc. This is normal. It is surface discoloration only and will not affect the life or performance of the disposer.

—

The reason for the Raleigh ban is grease accumulation in the pipes. The main culprits are from food fats and the narry-mentioned liquid clotheswashing detergents, not fresh vegetable trimmings.

The problem is the ban does not prevent one from pouring bacon and hamburger greases down the drain or from emptying their deep fryer down the drain. It also doesn’t prevent the use of Tide liquid, for example.

Be careful composting! Incorrect methods will attract snakes, raccoons, rats, and bees to your property.

Raleigh Rob, you hit directly on what I think the real problem is: “Waste from garbage disposers can overburden old municipal sewage systems.” The key word here is old. Raleigh, once again, has not kept up with growth since the 1960s when IBM first moved to town. Are our leaders addressing the problem and trying to catch up? No! Instead of admitting they haven’t done their jobs well for 40 years and making an effort to bring our city up to date, they’re asking the citizens to pay more and receive less (year-round schools, once-a-week curbside trash collection, and now, garbage disposals). I think it’s time for Raleigh to address its inadequacies and fix them instead of continuing to attempt “bandaid” solutions.

The ban on garbage disposals is not going to solve anything because it only applies to NEW disposals, which means new construction or replacements. It’ll take years (and I’m meaning 20 or so) before this ban accomplishes anything.

Further, the Council points to garbage disposals as the cause of GREASE spills, not a problem with solid matter in the sewer system. Speaking of which, how long will it be before we aren’t allowed to introduce any “solid matter” into the sewer system – or will it be allowed on an even/odd day basis?