The Monster Under the Sink

In the middle of the 20th century, the small town of Jasper, Indiana did something that no other city had done before: they made garbage illegal. The city would still collect some things, like soup cans and plastics, but yucky junk, like food waste, wouldn't get picked up.

This change was made possible by a new appliance: the garbage disposer – that little grinding machine at the bottom of a lot of kitchen sinks.

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[devillesworkshop]

Just spotted this episode!! I recently moved to the countryside in Ontario and retired a very environmentally unsustainable film prop business (I could tell you stories about this industry...). My wife and I are hellbent on making up for environmental sins and one of my favourite new activities is to go to the garden, pull a healthy bunch of fruits and vegetables for a breakfast shake. All the food waste goes to an outdoor sink with, you guessed it, a garburator. The ground up sludge gets mixed in a bucket with manure and some dirt from the garden, then goes into one of the compost bins. We use the garburator because it helps breaks down the food waste in a matter of days. This beautiful healthy compost goes back into the garden and the whole cycle starts again. My nieces are fascinated with " poo tea " that we strain from the compost to water the plants and trees with. I am happy to report that the garburator is still a very useful and functional tool. Also: I friggin' love this podcast, please keep being excellent!!! Thanks, Damian

[theguildhall]

I don't know why, but it's _never_ occurred to me that there are houses _without_ garbage disposals. Their completely ubiquitous, where I'm from-- to the point where I have never thought about them in any way before this episode. Very interesting!

[mightymac]

Currently living in Germany and garbage disposers are not allowed. All food scraps are collected in a "bio" bin which includes vegetable scraps and yard waste. It is taken away, ground up, composted and then offered back to the community for free as mulch for gardens or yards. I'm not sure about meat (beef, chicken, pork, fish) scraps as my wife and I do not eat meat. But, I believe this is not allowed in the bio bin and must go in the general waste bin. It's been an adjustment after having a house for previous 10 years, in USA, with a garbage disposer, but not upsetting to daily living and takes very little effort to stay on top of our food waste. Plus, we have grabbed a few shovelfuls of mulch from the local recycling center. So we feel as though whatever inconvenience we may experience in taking care of our daily garbage management we get free mulch back; it seems fair.