Chances are you’re not looking to get platinum LEED certification for your home. But there are reasons why these environmentally sustainable homes don’t include garbage disposals. While close to half of the homes in the U.S. have garbage disposal units in the kitchen, just as many do without. It’s certainly doable, but why should you make the sacrifice? Here are 10 reasons.

1. They use water. The daily amount varies, but the equivalent is something in the range of two flushes in the loo.
2. They require electricity to run, grinding slowly away at your utility bill.
3. They’re noisy.
4. They get clogged, so much so at times that you will have to call a plumber. Another routine expense.
5. The garbage you dispose of goes to the sewer system. At the water treatment facility, the process of chemical treatment is expensive and requires even more electrical power, as well as pumping costs.
6. The filtered water goes back to the ocean, while the solid waste further congests the landfill in the form of sewer sludge. The road to the landfill is long, though, and the big, noisy trucks going there run on gasoline, releasing more CO2 into the air.
7. The garbage disposal is not a necessity, as composting shows.
8. Composting, or using worm bins, make your garden grow, healthily, without the need for additional chemical additives.
9. If worms give you the heebie jeebies, there are compost programs that pick up the green bins for you. See if your city has one.
10. Companies that run compost for pick-up usually use less polluting trucks, and they research methods to return carbon and other elements from garbage and yard waste to the soil in the most efficient manner possible.

Helpful link:

Ditch the garbage disposal. Use a green bin.
Hire a professional kitchen contractor to install your new kitchen.

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