BY MICHAEL BURKE
Journal Times | Posted: Friday, April 18, 2008 12:00 am
Raleigh, N.C., residents can now grind away to their hearts' content, because garbage disposers are legal again. And that makes Racine's InSinkErator officials very happy.
On March 4 the Raleigh City Council imposed a ban on garbage disposers in new homes.
"Today we're pleased to update you that Raleigh has reversed that ban," InSinkErator President Jerry Ryder announced Friday.
Under the ban imposed six weeks earlier, the city would withhold a permit for a new home that would have a disposer.
The ordinance, passed without public input, also forbid a homeowner with a disposer from replacing it if it failed.
The Council's rationale was that disposers clog sanitary sewers - a contention that In-Sink-Erator says is patently false.
The action stirred up Raleigh residents, got news coverage around the country and spurred InSinkErator officials to action.
Raleigh City Councillor Philip Isley, who could not attend the March 4 meeting, said the proposed disposer ban "just showed up on the agenda" and passed 7-0 in his absence.
Then, Isley said, he and other councillors started getting a flood of e-mails from irate citizens.
Raleigh has had problems with its sanitary sewer system, with 44 spills since 2005. But Isley said the major cause is old infrastructure and root infiltration.
He said banning disposers was not fixing the problem and also called it a "very intrusive measure."
InSinkErator sent a delegation to Raleigh and helped persuade the Council to review the new ban - although the city did not hold off on enforcement during the measure's six-week life.
"InSinkErator contributed to this discussion by providing city officials with numerous environmental studies, as well as evidence that ground food is effectively treated by municipal sewers and waste water treatment systems," Ryder stated.
InSinkErator, the world's largest manufacturer of garbage disposers, also brought in experts including Kevin Keener, a Purdue University professor of food science, and Kendall Christiansen, former chairman of New York City's Recycling Advisory Board and an environmental consultant.
Combined with the glare of public ridicule, it was all too much for the Raleigh City Council, which rescinded the disposer prohibition Tuesday.
It was the second time that InSinkErator, a division of Emerson Electric, had fought to keep garbage disposers legal in Raleigh. The first time, eight years earlier, the Racine company knew the Council was considering outlawing disposers, and was able to head off the action.
This time, InSinkErator executives did not see the prohibition coming and had to fight against it after the fact.
"With growing concern about mitigating greenhouse gases, it is important that the public and our industry understands the positive role food waste disposers daily play as part of an environmentally friendly, holistic waste management system," Ryder said Friday.
"Disposers send food waste to wastewater treatment plants that convert organic waste into fertilizer products, and possibly capture energy in the process.
"Alternatively, food waste will end up in a landfill where it contributes to methane gas emissions (a powerful greenhouse gas) and leachate, which can damage ground water."