our digs are overturning getting into and generally attacking our garbage can daily when were not home. heck they will turn it over even empty and clean. must be their latest hobby.:( plus our community is reportedly going to a single 96 gallon container picked up by machine. i run a small business here and occasionally generate extra trash.
anyone have a compactor? are you happy? i never had one of these, but oddly enough have room for it in the kitchen
" snipped-for-privacy@aol.com" wrote on 23 Mar 2008 in group alt.home.repair:
I had a small cottage industry going for awhile replacing trash compactors with pull-out recycle bin drawers.
Trash compactors were a solution in search of a problem because:
One of the condo developments that I do work in each had one installed by the builder 20 something years ago. I am surprised to find that there are a few still around. Just another appliance to break down and they are a PIA to clean out thoroughly to get rid of the smell. I have pulled a few out for customers and they can be quite nasty if not cleaned regularly.
Personally I wouldn't want a week's worth of garbage collecting in the house. Here in NJ we must recycle paper, boxes, cans, and bottles so a separate container must be used for that stuff.
It was one of those bad ideas of the 70's. Few people really want an immovable object that smells like a landfill.
If you want something cool, get an automatic compost maker. :-)
on 3/23/2008 6:58 PM snipped-for-privacy@aol.com said the following:
I have had the same Kenmore compactor in my kitchen for 20+ years. It has never required repair. I have used a trash compactor for over 40 years, starting with a Kenmore portable unit when I lived in an apartment. In answer to some other comments. We used to use the $.50 compactor bags sold by Sears for years. A year or so ago when we ran out of the special bags, we used a Glad ForceFlex kitchen bag as a temporary solution. It worked so well that we continued to use them, and still use them today. They very rarely tear, and if they do, it is near the top where the bag stretches over the container sides. We recycle glass and plastic, so they don't go into the compactor, thereby reducing the risk of bag tearing (glass used to tear the special bags too). When we dump messy food remains into the compactor, we place newspaper over the mess, to keep the ram clean. The trash in our compactor lasts about a week. There is no noticeable smell, probably due to the newspaper covering the messy stuff . The compactors come with a special spray can attachment that automatically sprays a dose into the container when the door is closed, but we haven't used them for years and a spray of Odo-Ban or Febreze once in a while will do the same. The bag does get heavy, but I have no problem getting the bag out, and I am 70. When you get that 96 gallon trash can for the auto-load garbage trucks, your dogs will have a hard time getting into it as the lid itself is very heavy and about 42" off the ground..
The good news is- those big containers are pretty good at keeping critters out.
Jim
They are amazing devices!
They can magically turn twenty pounds of garbage into twenty pounds of garbage.
...in a smaller amount of volume, and using fewer garbage bags. Didn't like the one you had?
our dogs are the problem, indoors.
the racoons are the outdoor garbage pickers
WE have used a trash compactor for about 30 years. For the past 10 years, we have been required to separate our recyclable items from the rest. We began using the compactor for the recyclables, the rest in a regular trash can. Since we rinse the items before putting them in the compactor, there is no smelly mess. Depending on the weeks activity, we can go anywhere from
Trash bags are a renewable resource; just go to the store and get more. They appear on the shelves by magic.
Get the recyclables clean and separated. That leaves the rest (sorry to be obvious - trying to be clever). Food wastes can be put into the freezer until the day that the trash goes to the curb. It sure cuts down on smell as well as the dogs' incentive to dig into the trash.
Plastic garbage bags are a renewable resource? Where do they grow?
We have had ours for at least 12 years and really like it. There is just my wife and I. We normally empty only once a week. Of course a lot of our waste goes into the large recycling container the city has furnished us with, so that keeps a lot of it out of the compactor.
When we had our greyhound she figured out how to open it so we had to keep it locked. She would paw at the front of it until she'd step on the pedal next to the floor and it would come open. She died a few years back and our other dogs have never figured it out and don't even bother it.
Ours doesn't. We use ordinary kitchen size plastic garbage bags and they work fine. Of course we did buy the expensive ones for awhile until I figured out they were the same size as the plastic kitchen bags.
What the heck we they putting in them that made them so heavy?
Meat and kitchen food scraps go outside in our garbage can which has a latch on the lid.
We automatically empty ours every week the night before garbage pickup.
All of those things belong in the recycling bin.
Really? We are not allowed to put Styrofoam such as eggs cartons in to the recycling bin. We do manage to fill ours at least half full every week. Things such as prescription bottles go into it because of privacy concerns.
We have a hard plastic bin that we put the garbage bag in and then it slides right down into the compactor. It was manufactured especially for our trash compacter, a Kenmore.
So where is the problem if you have a separate container for recycling?
If it smells you aren't putting the right things in it. Meat, vegetable and fruit trash needs to be put in a garbage can outside the house.
True enough. However, they turn it into a small cube that is easy to handle.
Which is why we bought a garbage can for outside that has a latch on it. So far the raccoons and possums haven't figure out how to open it, but they sure love our bird feeders even though they are "squirrel proof."
There are some in the stores that are biodegradable.
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