People usually don’t think much about food and scraps they put into their garbage disposal and send down the drain. After all, it is meant to dispose of garbage, right? Well, yes and no.
A garbage disposal can deal with the majority of food and scraps, but if you are not careful with the way you use it, you are inviting trouble. Some things should never go into your garbage disposal as they can either cause it to malfunction or result in serious plumbing issues.
Baltimore-based company Prime Plumbing recently asked its plumbers to reveal one thing people shouldn’t put down their garbage disposal. And the answers were quite surprising.
Some of the plumbers believe that you should avoid putting anything down the garbage disposal, while others gave some more specific answers. One plumber identified chicken bones as “no-go,” while others mentioned rice, egg shells, and “anything starchy.”
The video ended up going viral, reaching three million views. It also caught many social media users off guard considering that they have been likely using their garbage disposal instead of a garbage bin.
Chicken bones and egg shells are likely on the list because they can break the garbage disposal. Rice and other starchy things, on the other hand, are known to expand with water and can create residue that clogs the drain pipes.
Other things that you should avoid sending down the garbage disposal are coffee beans, pits, corn husks, and grease. Basically, anything that can either damage the blades, get trapped into them, or clog the drains should be off-limits. That is of course you don’t want to pay a huge plumbing bill.
