I've never seen a garbage disposal in any of the apartments I've rented in New York. Nor in many of the suburban New York homes I've visited. I think this might be a regional/generational issue in the U.S.

>>> One of them is for organic waste. In some places, it becomes biofuel for power plants.<<<


I think that is what has become more and more common in Europe. For example where I live over 50% of the energy that is needed to heat the houses in winter is produced from waste.

I thought they flushed their garbage away at outdoor showers.

They are illegal in the Netherlands. They would clog up the filters at the pumps and poepmolens.
We have three bins, one for paper, one for garden and kitchen waste and one for other waste. Plus we have bottle banks, plastic banks, clothes banks, everything taken to a tip must be pre sorted, including garden rubbish - earth, twigs, branches, weeds, all go in separate containers.
We get free compost from our kitchen waste. What can't be recycled is burned to generate electricity. Unless it is an old TV or fridge when it seems it gets shipped to Ghana instead of being properly recycled here :(

We also have double sewers - one for the toilet and one for grey water and rainwater from the streets.
Rainwater from the houses goes into soakaways in the garden.

Following up to Ellenem's comments, garbage disposals were not allowed in NYC until sometime recently, and now OK only in new construction or some such limitation. I personally don't know anyone in the city who has one.

My building in Paris got the dreaded white tape ("refused") on one of bins last week for incorrect sorting. I have seen a major improvement this week in our trash bins, so I guess the guilty party got the message.

Naples at least could learn from all the above described methods of disposing of wastes

why can't they just burn it instead of depending on Mafioso controlled dumps?

Or ship it to Holland where they can compost, sort and burn the little remaining waste.

Rotterdam could become the garbage capital of Europe

They cannot ship it to Holland because they already shipped it to Germany.

I can see a great bidding war between Holland and Germany for Napoli garbage - i just hope it does not lead to a hot war between the two.

BTW the French word for garbage is

<garbage> pronounced <gar-baj>

Some years ago, Racine (?) Wisconsin had GDs installed in all homes. Homes in Wisconsin do have then and do use them. This an economical way to move human waste to its disposal source. It is no different in concept than the standard water closet. 1900 families in rural areas always kept a pig housed nearby to act as the GD unit. Yes, later he was converted to bacon and such.

my mom has one in her apartment. i thought it was common knowledge that you need to get a mesh screen to cover the disposal to keep your flatware out of it.

maybe i learned that in the early '80s from that film "the incredible shrinking woman" with lily tomlin. there's a harrowing encounter with the disposal in that movie.

Actually, there is a little item in many old French home and apartments with inadequate plumbing -- called a "Sani-broyeur". It is placed between the toilet and the pipes and grinds up everything that goes in the toilet.

This machine has always terrified me, because in most places that use one, if you say you need to go to the toilet, the owners jump up and say "Don't flush! I'll take care of it when you're done!" Besides not necessarily wanting to have my deposit displayed for all to see, I also have doubts about what they really do after you are done. I kind of think that these machines do not work as well as they should and that the owners are putting on latex gloves and fishing out the big pieces for some other sort of disposal. Yuck!

GSteed - i have used a pig-feeding toilet in India - all the slop from the toilet went down a metal slide and pigs were squeaking at the bottom of it in anticipation

every time i sat on the toilet they anticipatorily made the same gleeful call

First of all, calling a country "third world" because they don't have a kitchen appliance you think is nessesary . is horrible and American centered. .

We do not have a GD and many homes do not, they are old fashioned I think,, most of us compost or recycle, and those in apartments can still reycle. I personally don'think the French waste as much food as we do in North America anyways. half of what people put in GD seems to be produce they over bought and then find rotting in their fridges.. LOL

Have you ever eaten Vietnamese panga? It is probably the fastest growing export fish in the world.

When I first encountered these delightful creatures in the Mekong Delta, they were pointed out as being directly under the outhouses of the shacks on stilts of the local dwellers. The guide said "Do you see those cages under the toilet? Those are sh*tfish." Indeed, they fed almost exclusively from human waste showering down on them. And indeed, I actually saw that name on restaurant menus in the Mekong region.

It should be mentioned that outside of that region, the Vietnamese eat almost no panga whatsoever, preferring to export it. Of course the diet of these fish has changed in the huge fish farms, but I know what they really prefer. Nevertheless, I eat panga from time to time (big fleshy white fillets) but I have to make a point of not thinking of their past.

Our French friends don't say "garbage;" they say "ordure." And it goes in the poubelle.

<gar-baj> and <third-world> were tongue in cheek

A bit late coming to this post, but I was amused at the idea that living wihtout a garbage disposal was akin to living in a third world country. I lived abroad (Australia, Germany, England) for a number of years and g.d.'s were not available. I learned how to manage and quite honestly now that I've been back stateside for some time, I find the thing a bit of a nuisance.

<third world> was hyperbole

I have lived in France off and on and in no way would i call it a 3rd World country - 2nd World perhaps but not third.

But most French toilets i have been in could be called third world IMO - even middle class houses seem to have toilets that oft stink to high heaven - maybe because the bathroom/douche is in a separate room and the toilet is in a tiny cubicle all itself - or maybe my relatives are not typical