The problem of a broken installation can usually cost us not only a lot of cash but also a decent amount of stress. In order to avoid that, it’s healthy to know what you can and cannot throw into them. So we will be covering a rather common food today, eggs, and giving an answer to the question: can you put egg shells down the garbage disposal?
Can you put egg shells down the garbage disposal?
Putting items in the garbage disposal always requires some extra thinking. Throwing in items that aren’t fitting for it for any reason can result in problems. The issues will usually stem from some very apparent items. Things like cigarette butts, rubber bands, and other items of similar make are included on that list.
However, every once in a while, we’ll run into an item or a situation where we may not be clear on the proper choice. These cases can happen because we aren’t familiar with the item or because the item may seem like common garbage that we mindlessly toss it in.
This is the fastest way to get clogs or issues with your impeller blades. Suffice to say, informing yourself on the matters tied to the trash you throw into the garbage disposal is the best way to secure our garbage disposal. Otherwise, the problematic items may hamper or damage it.
When it comes to egg shells, we should be wary of multiple different issues that could happen. The proceeding information should help you comprehend why they may be troublesome for our garbage disposal. [1]
Are you supposed to put egg shells down the garbage disposal?
It’s time to find out whether the egg shells belong in our garbage disposal. The problem of putting unfitting items into garbage disposal is something we will frequently have to deal with with any new item we bring into our home. Some items will cause issues and require us to unclog the disposal.
However, the generic disposal rules usually cover us enough to the point we can intuitively decide. Unfortunately, this isn’t always true, especially with items like eggshells.
How do egg shells affect garbage disposal?
Eggshells may seem considerably frail and simple for our garbage disposal to crush up. This isn’t quite the case, though. While the appearance and overall experience with the eggshells will show them to be decently frail, things change when the garbage disposal is taken into account.
With our garbage disposal, we have to worry about foods that can bend over the blades and stick into the nooks of the installation. Unfortunately, egg shells fall into both of these categories. As a result, it’s not rare to have them splinter and end up in a spot egg shells shouldn’t be in. [2]
Can you put egg shells down the garbage disposal?
An egg shell could clog up the works before even reaching the blades, getting stuck in the area before it. However, the egg remains can make it a bit stickier than expected, while the material it is made out of leads to an incredible amount of resilience.
Once egg shells get to the blades, they might get stuck, especially if you toss a larger quantity of shells in there. The egg shells could end up in the mechanism if not on the blades themselves.
As they flow further down, these eggs may end up in a state where they haven’t been properly diced. That means the proceeding part of the installation could also be subject to the danger of clogs due to the size and surface of eggshells.
Lastly, you may find an overabundance of egg shells causing issues with the entry to the septic tank. This is once again where their composition comes in, risking a clog that may prove incredibly harmful due to affecting the septic tank as well. [3]
Do egg shells sharpen disposal blades?
The next question is tied to the effect of egg shells on the garbage disposal blades. To answer that, we have to clear something up first. Garbage disposal does not have blades. While the term blades may be simpler to say and give us the idea of the action these items perform well, it is also inaccurate. Instead of blades, garbage disposal has impellers.
What is an impeller?
An impeller is a rotor that can affect the velocity of a fluid. An impeller is also a blunt object that cannot be sharpened or dulled, performing its job through the mix of water velocity and sheer force it produces when spinning.
However, it’s easy to see why the term blades may be mistakenly used for an impeller when active. Due to the force impellers possess, they will crush and grind items that come in through the garbage disposal. Therefore, the actual meaningfulness of using the proper term for it comes rarely, the answer to this question being one of those cases. [4]
Do egg shells affect sharpness?
The egg shells won’t affect the sharpness of impellers because they have none. However, this doesn’t mean there won’t be downsides when throwing egg shells in.
For example, the egg shell membrane can get wrapped around the impeller, sticking throughout the further rotations of the impeller. In addition, the same membrane may accumulate debris, grease and bacteria that may adversely affect impellers. Similar items that could affect its health are often avoided too.
The accumulation will damage the impellers and should be handled swiftly through different cleaning means.
How to dispose of egg shells?
So we’ve firmly confirmed that egg shells cannot be disposed of through garbage disposal, at least not without it taking some damage. However, we still need to get rid of them. The amount of egg shells that can easily accumulate within every home is massive, especially in families that frequently make egg-based meals.
Garbage bin
Of course, the standard way of throwing the egg shells out would be by just throwing them in the garbage bin and then taking the trash out. However, the egg shells may be a bit sticky from the egg remains, so disposing of them in a manner that won’t affect your kitchen is preferred.
Put them in plastic or garbage bags after checking if the said bag is pierced anywhere. The damaged bags may result in the remains of an egg spilling over our garbage bin and kitchen. The mess would then have to be cleaned, wasting more of our time. The egg remains could also adversely affect our kitchen’s health due to them attracting harmful bacteria and allowing them to reproduce.
Turn them into compost
You may not have known this, but a decent number of your household items make for great compost. Those items include egg shells. Instead of throwing them out, you can make organic compost for your plants with very little effort.
One way to go about it is to mix up the standard compost with crushed egg shells. This mixture will create a nice blend of nutrients for your plants to consume. The nutrients within egg shells are especially fruitful and may be just the right type of addition for the garden.
Because of these nutrients, egg shells can be used on their lonesome as compost. Additionally, crushed shells also work well for repelling pests. This trait makes them exceptionally fruitful for organic gardening as the protective factor is very important to all plants.
Repurpose them
While egg shells can frequently end up in our waste, there are ways to utilize them outside of just chucking them out. Depending on how skilled we are with our egg cracking techniques, different options may be available. You can’t use a completely crushed egg shell for much, but a neatly split one has more applications.
The first use may come as a surprise. Namely, a really good way to repurpose egg shells is to give them to your chickens as food. This is an option because their stomachs are strong enough to digest the egg shells, while the nutrition found within the egg shells helps the chicken grow and develop.
It has a slight weirdness to it, seeing as chicken is eating the remains of the shell that they will later lay, but it is a nice way to repurpose trash.
They can also be used as pots for seedlings, allowing the small plants extra nutrients as well as a safe home. The egg shell also represents a very good pot for seedlings because you can easily transport the seedling to a bigger patch of dirt once it becomes too big. Sometimes you may be able to bury the plant together with the shell, leaving the extra nutrients intact and making the transport easy.
Another peculiar thing you can do is grind them up into chalk. The process can take a bit of learning, but it will require nothing more than ground egg shells, flour, hot water, and food coloring for different colors.
There are plenty of other ideas you may stumble upon, and these are just supposed to represent some examples. After all, repurposing items instead of throwing them out has a certain charm to it, especially when those items would become trash otherwise. [5]
Conclusion
Disposing of items through our installation will usually simplify the tasks. However, in odd cases, it will further tie us up. In addition, throwing in unwanted items can result in some devastating issues for the entire system.
Whether it’s the garbage disposal itself or other pieces of plumbing that will get clogged, the problem we will run into persists regardless.
We may face various troublesome situations with egg shells ranging from simple clogs to damage to the impellers. So naturally, it’s best to prevent them rather than resolve them. Hopefully, the details mentioned above will help you avoid these problems and even utilize the egg shells for something useful rather than simply throwing them out.
