My entire life, I've put egg shells, coffee grounds, chicken bones, veggie peelings, ice cubes, etc. down the garbage disposal.

Check your unit's manual for what it can handle, before you do the same.

We installed the top of the line ISO disposal in our kitchen 2 years ago, and it is pretty quiet, while also handling former disposal taboos, like onion skins and celery!

What I recommend NEVER putting much of down the disposal is too large a quantity of cooked pasta or rice at once, or uncooked rice or pasta. Now, those will seize your entire waste line!

Get the Insinkerator Evolution and you won't have a problem at all!

Well, I am using a top model waste king now IMO it is very nice also. It just says not to put plastic or bottle caps in it :/
I noticed recently the drain may be a bit slower since my wife started to put egg shells in a while ago, maybe it was just some veggie got in there and needs to be run.

I'm not trying to be funny or off topic, but if you compost at all, or even want to just crush them up a little and put them in the garden and kick a little dirt over them, calcium is an extremely important garden nutrient and they'll break down quickly out there.

To answer your question another way, I do not believe a moderate amount of empty eggshells will hurt your system. Things that I've seen give problems are bones, very fibrous vegetable matter, and very fatty foods that congeal in the lines.

Just run a good amount of water.

Growelry, thanks for the gardening tip! Eggshells will go in my garden from here on out.

As long as you're not on a septic tank, it won't hurt to put them down the disposer. People on septic tanks should avoid putting egg shells and bones down the disposer, and should also try to limit the amount of fats going down, too.

No problem, needsometips!

(In case you're wondering, calcium is an essential component of the plant's cell wall structure. So just like us, they can't grow up big and strong without it! Vegetables in particular don't thrive without it. Lime, like the lime you put on your lawn, is calcium carbonate. Tomato blossom end rot? That's not a fungus or anything. It's caused by calcium deficiency in the soil.)

-- Fascinating calcium facts brought to you by growlery, who believes that science is good for you.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled program ...

Good stuff growlery! One of the best gardners I have met and rather well known around here for her great personality and enchanting gardens (Trudi Temple, in Hinsdale IL) puts egg shells PLUS the cardboard cartons and all her veggie scraps into the garden.

Although I have a disposal, I hardly ever put anything into it except the smallest scraps and crumbs. I think it's because I saw a special once on water treatment plants and how hard it can be to keep up with our demands for clean water. I'd rather put my food scraps in the ground than in our water supply. (BTW if you think I'm nuts on this topic my DH would agree with you! I guess it's just one of my many quirks.)

And I never ever pour grease down the drain. I pour it into empty glass jars. I cooked with a friend on vacation once and about freaked when she poured a pan full of grease down the drain. She said she does it all the time at home. Isn't that bad for the pipes?

Celery, banana peels, bones, and egg shells. That is what my Mom taught me not to put down garbage disposals. Yes, there is some better reasoning behind the advice already given, like reading the manual, using the egg shells for compost, but I thought I would add my two cents. If I am in doubt, I don't use it, because I certainly don't want to replace it.

Let me jump onto the composting bandwagon here - and know I'm in good company.

Grease down a disposer should be a felony. I have trouble believing that a sane person would do that. My disposer is rarely turned on. Eggs shells, all veggie and fruit parings and cores, potato skins, and tons more go into a lidded container that I dump in the garden. Also all coffee grounds. Everything organic is returned to the soil. Please consider doing this.

Rosie

I'll likely put anything down the disposal --- except for coffee grounds and eggshells. THOSE should go around the base of any rosebush. My mamma always put eggshells or coffe grounds around the roses.... and her roses were famous in our town.

Proud composter here! If you've never done it before you will be amazed at the outcome in just a few months. Your garden will love you too!

I second the warning for septic owners. Nothing much can go down the disposer - mine is used only for sink clogs or the occasional scrap the dog won't eat!

My mother used to store her egg shells in old large mayo and pickle jars and fill them with water with the lid on. After a week or so she would then use that to water the plants around the house. She had amazing palms and ferns and swore that the egg shell water was the secret. The smell was unbearable I thought. She just laughed as I gagged.....

Too funny, lagrant! I'll have to try that (not to make the kids gag but for my plants).

We are on septic and I used to put egg shells down the disposal. I have never had a problem.

We now have a tumbler on wheels on the deck off the k;tchen which makes it very easy and convenient to use. We use the unbleached coffee filters and throw the whole thing in each morning, along with all vegetable matter, egg shells and grass clippings. In our remodel, we have wired for a disposal but agreed that we are not putting one in for now.

I highly recommend the tumbler. The only problems I have run into with it --
-I am fighting with a wren that wants to build a nest in it. Twice this week I opened the lid and it flew out and fussed at me from a distance. It may be the same one that persisted in building in our dryer vent no matter how many times we cleaned out the nest.
-A little compost falls out of the holes on the side when I spin it, but not much.
-The grooves used to get your fingers into for spinning will fill up with rain water and get your feet wet when you spin unless you remember to leave the handle facing up after you spin.

Be sure to add brown matter whenever you put green matter in (food scraps, grass clippings, etc.)

If you can't compost and are worried about using the disposal, what if when you crack the eggs, you have a strainer in the sink into which you crush the shells and then rinse them off before throwing them out? Would that help the smell?

Here is a link that might be useful: Compost tumbler

Eggshell water is one of the very best things for plants, if you can stand the smell. The smell comes from the shells decomposing, not from egg material left on the shells when you start. Rinsing them doesn't make a difference, unfortunately.

I wouldn't worry about a disposal, and if your drain lines are sound, I wouldn't worry about them either.

I suspect that *I* should not be putting anything down my drains, including toilet paper...

By the way, a compost bin should be a requirement for any kitchen remodel. You don't feel as bad about all the paper plates if you get the really cheap ones that compost well!

Wait a minute - I had heard that eggs were good to put into the disposer. I think it's supposed to remove odor. But grease - never!

I read somewhere that you should always run the water while running the disposer and for a full minute after you turn it off. And if grease accidentally gets into your sink use cold water to help chill it to a solid, so it doesn't adhere to the pipes.

I had a contractor (BIL) state that you should scrape your plates really well into the garbage first and then only tiny bits make it into the disposer. If that's the case, what's the point of a garbage disposer?!

The composters out there have the best idea. Once my guilt level gets high enough, I'm definitely going to follow their lead.
Check out Consumer Reports' info about garbage disposers. It seems most of them can handle things like bones, which I would never have considered.

Here is a link that might be useful: CI on Garbage Disposers

So.... what is a composting setup consist of (inside the kitchen that is) Is it just a bin or is there some holes or special thing?

I think I just want something to hold things temporary for 2-3 days It's a short walk into the garden compost bin and empty it.

The one thing that I have put into the compost pile that has not broken down is egg shells. We have a heavy-in-lime soil to begin with, too. I don't put the shells down the disposer either. On GW's Compost forum, they recommended against eggshells in compost when I started composting. I haven't tried placing the shells around the roses, though, which is what I do with coffee grounds as the roses need the acid.

Poor Owner, there are little countertop bins of varying attractiveness, but any lidded container will work. You can even buy compostable bags to line it with if that makes it easier to do (it does for me). Lee Valley Tools has some examples.

I don't understand how egg shell can break down in soil that quickly.

If it is calcium carbonate it is fairly inert, that's like a limestone. and I don't think the soil have enough acidity to dissolve it or does something eat it?

Coffee ground is great stuff though we just dump it under our Japanese maples, it's great for acid loving plants

I don't want to turn this into a composting thread, but composting is NOT as complicated as people make it out to be.

You don't need a bin or tumbler (in fact, this complicates things). You don't need anything.

I wrote a really long post and deleted it.

Just make a start. Anything you divert from the landfill to your garden is twice blessed.

And if anyone needed any more encouragement -- I got an e-mail from a gardening group today. It reminded us it was nesting season and recommended we put out crushed-up eggshells for the nesting mother birds, who need extra calcium to lay eggs.

Awwwww!

Totally agree about not putting grease down the drain!

A tip for slow drains that a plumber told me sb monthly maintenance on every drain in the house.

Plug the drain. Fill with very hot water. Add a cup of a concentrated, soap-free, grease-cutting detergent, i.e., NOT dish detergent, make sure it's soap-free (and be sure to add it AFTER the sink is full, or you'll get tons of bubbles).

Pull the plug and the draining water will help clean your plumbing lines and keep your drains running freely.

It also can help a slow drain start running clear.

Just be sure to use really hot water.

another vote for the garden.
I just rinse the insides, let them dry overnight then crush and sprinkle them onto the soil for my roses & peonies.
Boy, do they thank me for these!!

My SIL just told me tonight that she never puts stuff down the disposal anymore because here in CA the drains go to the ocean. She claims that the garbage is better because the garbage goes to landfill and the food scraps are decomposed. Anyone heard of that?

We have chickens who are amazing composters! They eat scraps, dig around in the compost pile and generally are great eco-system recyclers because their poop is great compost too! However, we never give them their own egg shells (someone told me it can cause them to cannabilize their own eggs after they lay them if they get used to eating them)....and we want them to lay eggs for US!

What part of California do you live in?? I'm all for diverting things from the costly waste stream, but the household drains go to sewage treatment plants!!! (Or septic systems.) It's only storm drains that go to the ocean, and they're starting to treat those too because of the accumulation of bacteria.

If you have three can recycling, the blue can goes to a sorting center where they sort and process the recyclables, and send the stuff they can't use to the landfill. The black can goes straight to landfill and isn't sorted. I think they do have enzymes or something they add to the landfills to help organics decompose, but they have to seal the fill well so that it doesn't leach into the ground water, so the process is limited.

The green can is for green waste only and is composted. You can put your vegetable and fruit garbage in the green can, including pineapple tops, all kinds of leaves, peelings, seeds and cores. That's what I do. But you can't put eggshells or meat/dairy scraps in. Be careful with grains because they very often have things that don't go in in the preparation. They have a slogan, "Your green can is vegan."

Anything you put in the garden is much more beneficial than if it has to go in a truck. I'm just not a good enough gardener, and don't have enough use for compost, to do it.

Since this topic has gotten somewhat off course and we are now talking about composting (somewhat), what about tea leaves? I see coffee grinds being mentioned, but nothing ever about tea. I drink a lot of tea, and if I could be putting it to better use, I should be.

Tea leaves are green matter for the compost/garden. My question: how many eggshells can I send to the garden? Mine is small.
Thanks for the great conversation! At least I am relieved to see I am able to put eggshells down the drain.