Writing in Slate, Jacob Leibenluft answers the question of whether kitchen sink garbage disposals are bad for the environment. For years, cities in Europe and America banned disposals, afraid they'd overtax the water-treatment system. But appliance manufacturers and restaurants have argued that disposals are environmentally friendly because they reduce the amount of trash in landfills. Leibenluft says water-treatment systems can deal with most residential food waste, but that dumping food into the system can affect local streams and rivers. But decomposing trash in landfills emit greenhouse gases like methane. So what should we do?
First, always compost when you can. If you can't, go ahead your garbage disposal as long as you're not in the middle of a water shortage. But if your local water-treatment plant doesn't use methane-capture technology to produce energy but your local landfill does, you may want to go ahead and toss your food in the trash.
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