John,
No, my main concern is with safety, as I mentioned before. Lye and sulphuric acid can cause severe burns. When a partial blockage is in the sink and the disposer is started, splashing often occurs. This could get on the skin, bad enough, but in the eyes can damage the cornea, very badly.
Straight lye and concentrated sulphuric acid are both available at a lot of the big box home improvement centers. Just seeing theses there (The bottle of H2SO4, is often in a sealed clear plastic bag, in case of spills. It is that dangerous.)
It scares me to death that not only an adult, but a child, or animal could be hurt with these. You don't have to be a "fool" to accidentally knock over a bottle of acid, or accidentally have the disposer splash it in your eye. Once could even wear goggles and, if the backsplash is great enough, have the caustic solution leak past them.
The things I put in disposers do not pose a danger to humans or animals. Just the opposite..they keep "organic" wastes out of the trash system which can spread disease, support vermin and create methane in landfills.
None of the things I put in the disposer are specificaly listed as "don'ts" by ISE.
They do say "large Whole bones". I guess it depends on one's definition of large. I don't put anything larger than pork chop bones in and these are not even a remote challenge to a disposer. Large turkey breast bones, leg bones etc., I ususally break into half.
If you read in the ISE instructions is actually encourages bones grinding to keep the disposer clear. There is no mention of paper. The older Lady Kenmore I had specifically stated one could put paper napkins down it. If they are soiled with food wastes or other materials that can putrify or decay, they go down the disposer. Non-soiled paper towels and napkins I just stick in the trash compactor (except, occasionally, when I stick it in the disposer by habit without thinking about it.) Yes, before I got a paper shredder, I ocassionaly tore up a bank card statement and stuck it down the disposer for security reasons.
Glass and plastics are mentioned, with metal and bottlecaps, which, no I do not dispose of. I don't think anyone else on this site does either.
The only glass, I have ever washed down the dispsoser are the teeny little fragments left over after a breaking a glass in the sink, and I have cleaned up the larger shards by hand. I feel washing the sink down the sprayer is better than wiping it out as I have a fear of glass particles getting into food.
I don't want to argue as I think highly of everyone on this site and value their opinions. I feel maybe we have slighty exceeded normal discussion and are encroaching upon interaction which some may be be taking personally. I apologize if this is the case.
If someone wants to put corrosive chemicals in their disposer that is their business. All I can say is, I hope they do not get injured and it appears that ISE agrees with me as well as some others on this site, who don't do this.
Probably, you are right, John, most people will not get hurt doing so. But it only takes once, and severe burn injuries are sometimes not recoverable.
So I have to do a value judgement and see if the rewards are greater than the risks. In the case of putting caustic chemicals down the disposer, my personal answer is "no".
Others have to make their own value judgement. I just hope they, an innocent child or an animal ever suffers because of their decision.
