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Old Wives Tales are Alive and Well According to InSinkErator

Published: September 11, 2014

Potato peels, banana peels, chicken bones, garlic peels and celery. The list of things people believe they shouldn’t put down a garbage disposer has been perpetuated for decades. “With modern disposers, they are all wrong,” said Vince Costa, director of customer service at InSinkErator.

Garbage disposers have been around for more than 75 years, and approximately half of all the homes in the U.S. have one. Yet with so much usage over a long time, the most-asked questions coming in to the InSinkErator call center continue to be, “What can’t I put down it?” InSinkErator attributes it to old wives’ tales.

“We’re not sure who this modern ‘old wife’ is, or what makes her so credible, but she needs education regarding what modern disposers can handle,” said Costa. “What may have been true 75 years ago is not true anymore with our advanced disposer models.”

For instance, when asked which foods they would never put down a disposer, more than 75 percent of respondents said bones. Another common answer was banana peels.

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“If you have a disposer with three grind stages like the Evolution Excel, you should have no concerns about putting any kind of food waste into your disposer, including bones,” said Costa. “Just make sure you feed it slowly and run the water. Because of these Old Wives tales, people are dealing with smelly food in their trash and the pests attracted to it. Maybe it’s raccoons perpetuating these myths?”

Several respondents also said they don’t put anything down their sink because they have a septic system. “This is another misconception,” said Costa. “The fact is if you have a septic tank that can handle a dishwasher and a washing machine, it can easily handle a disposer, too.”

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