Kitchen appliance key to sustainable waste management
By Azlan Othman

To promote a sustainable solution towards a clean and hygienic environment we must look into the core of the problem.

The problem is our garbage. We face an overflow of garbage, with garbage scattered by pests such as stray dogs, cats and sometimes monkeys and rodents for those who live in the rural and residential areas. Obnoxious odours fill the neighbourhood when your garbage is not disposed of or collected immediately. So the core of our problem is found in the kitchen of every home.

There is now an instant solution for all these problems - the food waste disposer. Food waste disposers have an important role in holistic waste management. Not only is it environmentally friendly, it provides great benefit to our society.

The use of food waste disposers contributes in preserving, protecting and improving the quality of the environment and allows for the rational utilisation of natural resources.

The technology associated with food waste disposers is both new and old. The cornerstone and first link to transporting food waste is the disposer, which grinds the food waste into small pieces and evacuates it with the help of water. It is designed to ensure that only food waste goes through the disposer.

Materials other than food waste (bottle caps, textiles etc) will lead to the jamming of the device. As grindable food waste represents up to 60 per cent of the total amount of kitchen/household waste, the potential use of the food waste disposer is relatively large. We should consider this device a necessity in our kitchens, alongside other electrical kitchen appliances.

You will have no hassle during your food preparation and moreover when food waste is eliminated instantly you generate less garbage, thus fewer disposals or collections. This will not only reduce your cost but also the government's problems in the Municipal Solid Waste.

To increase the recovery of organic waste and thus ensure that it is not landfilled, the food waste disposer can be used as an integral tool turning food waste into sludge, which is eventually spread onto agricultural land. Moreover, the use of a food waste disposer generates primary sludge richer in nutrients than many other types of sludge.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin