City bans garbage disposal units (includes fine of up to $25,000 a day - Raleigh, NC)

Politicom ^ | 3/08/08

[Libloather]

City bans garbage disposal units

Residents of Raleigh, N.C., face stiff penalties if they install garbage disposal units in their kitchen sinks or repair existing ones if they break.

The City Council approved the ban on Wednesday, the Raleigh Chronicle reports. The ordinance includes a fine of up to $25,000 a day.

Officials said that anyone caught with an illegal disposal unit could also face a lifetime ban on getting city water. The ban covers several municipalities around Raleigh.

The garbage disposal units, which grind up leftover food and flush it into the sewer system, lead to pipes clogged with grease. That can lead to sewage overflowing into streams or ponds.

Raleigh residents are urged to collect grease in an old can or jar, allow it to harden and put it in the trash.

[EBH]

I save bacon grease. I use it to flavor my beans, gravy, and fry pork chops. I love to use it to fry up scrambled eggs and make my own version of country style eggs benedict.

Oh ...I live in the North too.

For those who might be interested:

Two slices of homemade sourdough bread toasted
Top with 3 to 4 slices of pepper bacon
Top with two eggs over easy
Layer on a bit of shredded cheddar cheese

Forget the “hollandaise” sauce, try this one instead

After frying the bacon toss in diced onions and tomatoes to the bacon grease. Saute to release juices. Add a large pinch of flower and stir in to make a rue. Next add milk. Bring to a boil stirring constantly, then turn off burner and allow to thicken. Pour over eggs. (Variation add 1/4 brick of cream cheese)

[bvw]

They are subject to the same laws as you are. The laws of social behavior, politics, and civics. Hold them to account for carrying out their duties responsibly.

But do not think you are a helpless victim. Do not claim you have a *magical* right! This is a case where you citizens have to fight!

And gee -- if the situation is as you say, then the board with these excessive fines has handed you a great weapon.

Still -- victims don't win fights even with the best of weapons. The ones you fight are like you, they are humans, they are people in your community. They speak the same language, they go to the same places, etc. etc.

There is no mythical beast called a "Govt". There is just us.

The board acts with vigor! What are the citizens doing? Just complaining, being victimized?

[gitmo]

Garbage disposals were a bad idea from the beginning. People that have them, if they are smart, don’t use them for anything but what’s trimmed off their fresh veggies before cooking them.

Some raw veggies gum up the works. Celery gets them tangled up in fibers.

[HardStarboard]

>>>“101 uses for a jar of grease”.<<<

During WWII we saved it and gave it to the war effort - you can make explosives out of the stuff.

[mdmathis6]

Hot with dawn dishwashing liquid which emulsifies and breaks up the grease...never had a problem with grease plugs with it. The trick is to use the dawn or any product that has a grease emulsifier in it!

[Libloather]

We are in a drought so we get fined if we wash our car...

I think the fine applies to turning on the hose while washing a car. There are 'ways' around that.

I don't enjoy spending $4 or $5 for a drive-thru wash. It's a waste of money and a layer of dirt always remains. Try this - watch the local radar for rain. Wait for a real gully washer to move in. Fill a bucket with ONE gallon of steaming hot water and car wash detergent. Make some suds. After the first sprinkles wet the car, use a soft brush with the soapy water to knock off the dirt. Yeah, you might get a little wet but it's worth it.

Wiping down a car should take only a few minutes. Then, LET IT RAIN! A few leftover suds are no big deal. If you want it all off, drive the vehicle around the block.

Option #2 also includes radar and not getting wet. Take one gallon of hot, soapy water to the local car wash. On the drive over, allow the rain to wet the car. Pull up under the covered bay and wipe that car down with your soft brush. A power rinse costs $1. Or, just drive away and let the rain do it's work! Wanna MAKE money? Have a neighbor follow you down to your local car wash with TWO gallons of hot, soapy water. You can knock out a few cars and charge the second car $5 for labor. If they want a power rinse, that's $1 extra.

(Shhhhh. These are some of my best secrets. Please don't tell anyone...)

[Girlene]

bvw, I’m not a victim of this ban in Raleigh. The citizens of Raleigh are the “victims”. I agree with speaking up, fighting back, etc. However, this liberal, unthinking attitude is invading all manner of “gov’t” policies because the average person is becoming more liberal, socialistic, whatever you want to call it. It’s easy to be a liberal; it’s much more difficult to be conservative. The council in Raleigh may or may not learn their ban on garbage disposal units won’t fix their problem. By that time, they’ll be on to blaming and banning something else. And people will forget why can’t use garbage disposals anymore.

It gets tiring for the average joe to fight and prevent stupid decisions, when it is so easy to make them anymore.

[RandallFlagg]

Bookmarking the insane

[Libloather]

Ask the city council one question: Have all of you removed yours yet?

I initially thought that it would be one large charge to remove the durn thing. But a disposal does allow water to pass so removal isn't required - just as long as you don't USE it to grind stuff. How they'll find out about illegal grinding - I dunno.

The garbage police have been around for years. Once posted at the street, my bins get randomly inspected so real trash is in the trash can and real recyclables are in the recycle can.

[Gabz]

There is no mythical beast called a "Govt". There is just us.

Other than your earlier attack upon all city dwellers, I was pretty much in agreement with much of what you have been saying.........until I came to this comment.

You are naive beyond naive if you truly believe such drivel.

The only "us" are those who say "enough is enough" about this type of infringement, but alas there are far too few and thus there is no "mythical" beast called gov't -- it is a real beast.

You have stated you have no problem with this "PR" stunt from this government entity, but you say that only because it is a non-issue to you and has no impact on you. It also has no impact on me, but I do not consider it a non-issue. Someday one of these "non-issues" is going to have an impact on me and if I don't speak up for and with those it does impact, none of them will speak up for me when it is my turn.

[Proud_texan]

"you cannot place"

For a while we had trash police here but then they went to the mechanical arm pickup thingie and they don't peak any more.

But before they did they refused to pick up my trash twice; once because I put a cardboard pizza box in the trash (I thought it had too much cheese, etc. gunk on it to recycle) and another time because I had a rock in my trash can (I'd found it in the yard and didn't want to hit it with the mower, the can was handy, so...).

They tagged the rock as "non-household waste".

Gotta love it.

[visualops]

What an idiotic rule, you don’t need a disposal to throw grease down the drain!!
Grease/oil and leftover food are two different things. Fruit and vegetable peelings or cooked meat or cereal or what have you, are not going to clog drains with grease.
I don’t have a disposal and it wouldn’t stop me from pouring grease down the drain. Of course, I’m not an idiot so I save bacon grease to make gravy or home fries.

[bvw]

An attack on city dwellers? Not from me. It is a fair and pertinent to the discussion to make the statement that city dwellers are very ignorant, as a rule, about things beyond the faucet and sink, ignorance to the point of magical thinking.

The education a city dweller gets by living in a city teaches other things -- like better social skills. Like most human things, these better skills are often used to make better excuses -- for example typical city dweller is usually better at coming up with ten reasons why he/she should and even must take what is not their own (think Mike Bloomberg and gunshops in Virginia), where a country person would be hard-pressed to come up with two.

One great expertise among city-folk is in playing the victim card. A con-man need only have the skills of an average metropolitan in this area of person-to-person skills in order to progress in his field of endeavor when he moves to the country.

[sit-rep]

lol...

[bvw]

Besides I said it was a “marvelous” PR stunt. Which it is. Over-the-top. If you are a lobbyist surely you must have some appreciation for it — it is the equal of millions — more — in media. Now how will they proceed? And how will the citizens proceed?

[Libloather]

Other than bones, I flush all scraps down the toilet to include leftover pet food.

If it's yellow, let it mellow. If it's brown, flush it down.

[Gabz]

An attack on city dwellers? Not from me

Really? Then why no response from you to my request for cutting city dwellers some slack in response to your post #53 where you stated : Besides, even though city folks are plain dimwit and delusional about anything beyond the faucet and drain, ?????

My response, which you chose to ignore in your effort to continue your ignorant opinion of city dwellers can be found at post #73.

Your Bloominidiot/Virgiia reference resonates with me as I was born and raised in NYC and am now a resident of rural Virginia.........however, it proves your broadbrush tactics to be wrong. I still lived in Delaware when he bought the mayor's office of NYC and knew even then, 20 years AFTER I had left, that he could only be BAD news........and I was right.

Mindsets such as yours do nothing to help promote whatever it is you are trying to promote.

That you chose to focus on the least pertinent part of my post says far more about you than it does about me.

[DelphiUser]

The more complicated you make the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the works...

[mysterio]

150 years of voting for the same two parties earns you quite a bit of petty tyranny, it seems.

[Gone_Postal]

what happened to a chicken in every pot...Oh! the grease thats left over and what to do about it