What ever happend to trash compactors?
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Single stream recycling-I don't know how the recyclables are separated-one trash company here picks up their subscribers recyclables in an old Pak-Mor RL trash truck-how would you separate the mess esp after the bottles have been ground to collet in the trucks compactor?Well,they do make a neat sound when they get crunched.-But glass chips in the papers?Would like to see the separation process.Think it would be a hell of a mess.Another trash company picks up the recyclables in a large trailer pulled by a pickup truck-least the stuff isn't packed.Bet the driver has to empty the trailer often at the dumping point.This is the same company that used the EZ-Pak "Boss" and Leach RL trucks for gen trash.Nothing like the sound of trash bags popping and whistling in the morning as they are being packed-One morning an exercise ball was crushed in the Pak-Mor-made a nice BOOM!!!This is some of the sights and sounds on my morning walks-the drivers are cooperative and do the pack cycles with hoppers full of bags!!-Or that exercise ball-both of us stood back from the hopper!!Lots of dust blew out when the ball went.
I'm not sure how the do it. They just started a few months ago. Prior we had to have bottle/cans/plastic containers in one blue box,,, paper products in another. Looks like the same trucks picking it up. Must be something at the other end separates it all.
I don't think we ever had trash compactors over here. Same goes for waste disposals, by the way. If I search for them online, I'm only getting results for devices that help you to press more garbage into the outside trash can. Trash is measured in volume not weight, so compacting would mean that you could get a smaller trash can and have it emptied every four weeks, instead of every other week. This would mean big savings for the consumer. Cities like Cologne will charge a fine of 50,000 Euros (67,655 USD) if they find out that you have repeatedly compacted your trash into a small garbage can.
The first (and only) time I saw a compactor, I though it was an 18" dishwasher.
The first (and only) time I saw a compactor, I though it was an 18" dishwasher.
compactor
I have a KitchenAid compactor (the Hobart design) and a WPL built Jenn-Air
I can cram 3 to 4 weeks of trash into 1 bag, using a heavy grade 1 mil or so bag.
I have a KitchenAid compactor (the Hobart design) and a WPL built Jenn-Air
I can cram 3 to 4 weeks of trash into 1 bag, using a heavy grade 1 mil or so bag.
whirlcool
Well-known member
That is a hefty fine that Cologne charges for compacting. I wonder how many people can actually afford to pay it?
Well, it seems no one had to pay the fine yet. It's more likely that your trash just won't be picked up, so an article said. In the end, it's just another way for the municipalty to make more money.
The one web site that offers compactors in Germany sells Broan units, by the way. These retail for 2,400 to 2,700 USD (converted from Euros), which is probably why I have never seen anybody buy them over here. The disposers are Ecofast, EcoSink and InSinkErator.
The one web site that offers compactors in Germany sells Broan units, by the way. These retail for 2,400 to 2,700 USD (converted from Euros), which is probably why I have never seen anybody buy them over here. The disposers are Ecofast, EcoSink and InSinkErator.
ovrphil
Well-known member
Never owned a compactor but...
it would make sense to...whether you recycled or not. In the last 17 years of home ownership, we didn't opt for a trash compactor...but in the future, I'd like one...there's alot of non-recyclables.
Just curious...Combo52 and anyone else....do you put everything into your compactors or use it for recyclables only? Recycling is an option....can see where the value increases for those people who chose not to recycle, for whatever reason.
it would make sense to...whether you recycled or not. In the last 17 years of home ownership, we didn't opt for a trash compactor...but in the future, I'd like one...there's alot of non-recyclables.
Just curious...Combo52 and anyone else....do you put everything into your compactors or use it for recyclables only? Recycling is an option....can see where the value increases for those people who chose not to recycle, for whatever reason.
Compactor Use
We put only Non-Recyclables in our compactors, which is why we often go more than 6 months before they need to be emptied. All food waste either goes in the disposer, out in the compost pile or just out to feed the wild animals.
I am such an environmentalist that I do not even use bags in my compactor, years ago I purchased a heavy plastic liner for my WPC from WP and when it is full I just take it outside and shake the contents into the trash can. I have never understood the reason to buy plastic bags to put trash into that are just going to be thrown out. I likewise use only about one roll of paper towels per year, we have hundreds of cotton towels that are used for all household cleaning tasks and are washed and used again and again, after all we are washer collectors.
You can really get a lot in a compactor if you use the Extra-Pac cycle when the bin is starting to fill to the point where it seems that the bag will soon need emptying. If your compactor does not have EP [ and only WP built compactors have it ] yuo can accomplish the same thing by starting the compactor and stopping it the instant that the ram is fully in the down position, then you leave the compactor like this and wait for a 1/2 hour or longer, even overnight.
I actually invented the idea of doing this in the early 1970s but unfortunately did not apply for a patent before WP did in the late 1970s, O Well, LOL.
While I do find a compactor very useful, I do have a hard time recommending that my customers spend $500 or more dollars on one when redoing a kitchen. The good news for us appliance collectors is that it is very easy find good sightly used compactors for almost nothing.
John L.
We put only Non-Recyclables in our compactors, which is why we often go more than 6 months before they need to be emptied. All food waste either goes in the disposer, out in the compost pile or just out to feed the wild animals.
I am such an environmentalist that I do not even use bags in my compactor, years ago I purchased a heavy plastic liner for my WPC from WP and when it is full I just take it outside and shake the contents into the trash can. I have never understood the reason to buy plastic bags to put trash into that are just going to be thrown out. I likewise use only about one roll of paper towels per year, we have hundreds of cotton towels that are used for all household cleaning tasks and are washed and used again and again, after all we are washer collectors.
You can really get a lot in a compactor if you use the Extra-Pac cycle when the bin is starting to fill to the point where it seems that the bag will soon need emptying. If your compactor does not have EP [ and only WP built compactors have it ] yuo can accomplish the same thing by starting the compactor and stopping it the instant that the ram is fully in the down position, then you leave the compactor like this and wait for a 1/2 hour or longer, even overnight.
I actually invented the idea of doing this in the early 1970s but unfortunately did not apply for a patent before WP did in the late 1970s, O Well, LOL.
While I do find a compactor very useful, I do have a hard time recommending that my customers spend $500 or more dollars on one when redoing a kitchen. The good news for us appliance collectors is that it is very easy find good sightly used compactors for almost nothing.
John L.
ovrphil
Well-known member
Compact use plus
Super helpful, generous reply; evironmental approach you have is great. There's at least one idea in each of us, that we could make money from, maybe you'll have another one appear in your day or nighttime dreams..
I'm sure you had more than one, anyways.
Thanks John.
(and not to promote..not at all...but for another viewpoint on compactors, try this link)[this post was last edited: 1/19/2014-11:49]
Super helpful, generous reply; evironmental approach you have is great. There's at least one idea in each of us, that we could make money from, maybe you'll have another one appear in your day or nighttime dreams..
I'm sure you had more than one, anyways.
Thanks John.
(and not to promote..not at all...but for another viewpoint on compactors, try this link)[this post was last edited: 1/19/2014-11:49]
Trash Compactors Are One of the Best Kitchen Appliances
I am a big fan of my trash compactor. It is one of those things that I never thought I would like as much as I do. It came with the house and at first the concept was a little off-putting to me.
ibescience.hubpages.com
lightedcontrols
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2004
- Messages
- 1,549
Love my......
...compactor! I bought a Viking because they use the old Hobart design. I can't remember one of my kitchens that DIDN'T have a compactor. Lightedcontrols
...compactor! I bought a Viking because they use the old Hobart design. I can't remember one of my kitchens that DIDN'T have a compactor. Lightedcontrols
danemodsandy
Well-known member
The Trouble With Compactors....
From the standpoint of sales and marketing was that they didn't make anything effortless.
While they did - and still do - fulfill their stated promise that large quantities of trash will be compacted to a much smaller volume, they introduced two largish problems of their own. 1) The compacted bagful of trash can be appallingly heavy and 2) If you don't like scrubbing a trash can, you're really gonna hate keeping a compactor stink-free.
The best "new product" ideas are those which, frankly, promote laziness. The microwave oven succeeded not because people bought into its cooking ability; it succeeded because people could pop frozen ready meals into it, touch a key and get hot food without effort.
Compactors do what they do quite well, but not everyone can deal with the use and care requirements, which limits sales. Everyone can use a microwave, whether they want to take care of it or not.
From the standpoint of sales and marketing was that they didn't make anything effortless.
While they did - and still do - fulfill their stated promise that large quantities of trash will be compacted to a much smaller volume, they introduced two largish problems of their own. 1) The compacted bagful of trash can be appallingly heavy and 2) If you don't like scrubbing a trash can, you're really gonna hate keeping a compactor stink-free.
The best "new product" ideas are those which, frankly, promote laziness. The microwave oven succeeded not because people bought into its cooking ability; it succeeded because people could pop frozen ready meals into it, touch a key and get hot food without effort.
Compactors do what they do quite well, but not everyone can deal with the use and care requirements, which limits sales. Everyone can use a microwave, whether they want to take care of it or not.
magic_clean
Well-known member
Compactor
care and cleaning can be kept to a minimum, if wet trash is kept out of the bin or swaddled in old newspaper. Additionally, when crushing bottles it helps to cover them as well with a cereal box or other heavy paper waste.
-L.P.
care and cleaning can be kept to a minimum, if wet trash is kept out of the bin or swaddled in old newspaper. Additionally, when crushing bottles it helps to cover them as well with a cereal box or other heavy paper waste.
-L.P.
danemodsandy
Well-known member
Leslie:
I get that, absolutely - a little thought can make a compactor much more user-friendly.
The trouble is that a lot of people don't want to think, and even among those who do, there is a complicating factor known as The Children. Kids faced with a magic appliance will put anything they can into it; you're lucky if they don't stuff the dog into one.
My point is merely that compactors do nothing to ease the lives of the mindless, in the way that microwave ovens do. And that is why compactors are not in nearly every American house, the way microwaves are.
I get that, absolutely - a little thought can make a compactor much more user-friendly.
The trouble is that a lot of people don't want to think, and even among those who do, there is a complicating factor known as The Children. Kids faced with a magic appliance will put anything they can into it; you're lucky if they don't stuff the dog into one.
My point is merely that compactors do nothing to ease the lives of the mindless, in the way that microwave ovens do. And that is why compactors are not in nearly every American house, the way microwaves are.
Out my way you seldem see home type compactors-folks just put their trash out hedre for the trash trucks to pick up and run thru the trucks compactor.Just now the City of Greenville bought some really beautiful auto SL trucks-McNelius bodies on International Chassis.Since I am out of town-the trucks aren't used my way.You have to subscribe to one of the private trash Companies-Pak-er or Davids Trash.I take my trash to the transfer station site-each of these site has Roll off dumpsters for Bottles&cans,Furniture,White goods,cardboard,and yard waste.A Baker compactor takes care of the gen trash.Again,have the dump site operator run the compactor for me-again the nice sound of popping bags.I have only seen like two home type compactors here-one at a yard sale-another at the swap shop.
Magic appliances-remember when someone washed their poodle dog and put him into the microwave to dry the dog?Remembere that from years ago.The magic compactors here are the Baker and Marathon compactors at the dump sites,and the Leach,McNelious,EZ-Pak,and Pak Mor trash trucks on the routes my way.Today is trash day-will see what trucks I can spot!
Magic appliances-remember when someone washed their poodle dog and put him into the microwave to dry the dog?Remembere that from years ago.The magic compactors here are the Baker and Marathon compactors at the dump sites,and the Leach,McNelious,EZ-Pak,and Pak Mor trash trucks on the routes my way.Today is trash day-will see what trucks I can spot!
COMPACTIVITY:
All in all, all you get is an appliance that turns 30 Pounds of Garbage into 30 Pounds of Garbage! No surprise in ecological times lie the '70's this appliance right down to the sickly bodily fluid colors that owning a Compactor was in vogue!
Grade schools not wanting to deal w/ tons of gabage in smelly garbage cans had the big stainless steel Gladco, that the dried-up cole slaw would have to be filed off the cylinders that ram it down...
(And an anachronism: There was one in the school cafeteria in the movie GREASE, set in the '50's that I recognized from our lunch room, and it seems as though every school used the same model which hadn't changed in 20-years...!)
TEN CENTS TO TRASH:
25-years-ago, returned pop & beer bottles had to be hand-sorted & I worked at a drug store sorting out the stuff (often NEVER cleaned, or washed out--not even SUCKED OUT, as I do!) which took up the entire stock room, having to be put in bags & boxes according to manufacurer, just for the trucks delivering the full stuff to have to put the empties into the trucks formerly loaded w/ the stuff we're gonna buy & drink!
Nowadays, machines crush all that plastic, metal & glass along w/ all the back-wash, unconsumed product, and whatever else leaks from the machines which also crush the plastic & metal (the glass remains in one piece) which are in these crates that have to arduously assembled then take up the entire storage area, waiting for the recycling truck that collectively takes this material, porbably sending it off on a barge to China...
Meanwhile, the entire room that these returnables (often in bulk loads, kind'a like the SEINFELD episode where Newman loans his postage van to haul the stuff to Michigan) have to be cleaned out, the machines if they are full have to be emptied, if the printer that tallies up & prints the tickets has to be reapired, and of course the boxes & garbage bags have to be emptied and the floor swept and mopped, especially from the leakage & spillage of the unconsumed product and God knows what else! That's not even to count the stuff WITHOUT a MI deposit/return that people are just too unconscious and lazy to take back to their cars, or thinking they can bring back bleach bottles and detergent bottles and water bottles and lids to pots and pans, and soup cans--thinking that they will be recycled when they really actually go into our big compactor which is referred to as our "Hole In The Wall"....!
-- Dave
All in all, all you get is an appliance that turns 30 Pounds of Garbage into 30 Pounds of Garbage! No surprise in ecological times lie the '70's this appliance right down to the sickly bodily fluid colors that owning a Compactor was in vogue!
Grade schools not wanting to deal w/ tons of gabage in smelly garbage cans had the big stainless steel Gladco, that the dried-up cole slaw would have to be filed off the cylinders that ram it down...
(And an anachronism: There was one in the school cafeteria in the movie GREASE, set in the '50's that I recognized from our lunch room, and it seems as though every school used the same model which hadn't changed in 20-years...!)
TEN CENTS TO TRASH:
25-years-ago, returned pop & beer bottles had to be hand-sorted & I worked at a drug store sorting out the stuff (often NEVER cleaned, or washed out--not even SUCKED OUT, as I do!) which took up the entire stock room, having to be put in bags & boxes according to manufacurer, just for the trucks delivering the full stuff to have to put the empties into the trucks formerly loaded w/ the stuff we're gonna buy & drink!
Nowadays, machines crush all that plastic, metal & glass along w/ all the back-wash, unconsumed product, and whatever else leaks from the machines which also crush the plastic & metal (the glass remains in one piece) which are in these crates that have to arduously assembled then take up the entire storage area, waiting for the recycling truck that collectively takes this material, porbably sending it off on a barge to China...
Meanwhile, the entire room that these returnables (often in bulk loads, kind'a like the SEINFELD episode where Newman loans his postage van to haul the stuff to Michigan) have to be cleaned out, the machines if they are full have to be emptied, if the printer that tallies up & prints the tickets has to be reapired, and of course the boxes & garbage bags have to be emptied and the floor swept and mopped, especially from the leakage & spillage of the unconsumed product and God knows what else! That's not even to count the stuff WITHOUT a MI deposit/return that people are just too unconscious and lazy to take back to their cars, or thinking they can bring back bleach bottles and detergent bottles and water bottles and lids to pots and pans, and soup cans--thinking that they will be recycled when they really actually go into our big compactor which is referred to as our "Hole In The Wall"....!
-- Dave
But on a more positive note, my daughter's best friend's mother has a vintage '80's-'90's Kitchen Aid undercounter compactor in Almond, among her Sub Zero side by side fridge and Bosch dishwasher and Bosch dual-fuel gas range w/ electric oven; just dunno if she still uses it or not...
-- Dave
-- Dave
In my town you can select a half-size can for a less than 50% discount on the monthly trash bill. I'd have to do some math to see if it would be cost effective to get a compactor for dry waste. The city does have extensive recycling - with large bins for mixed paper/metal/glass. Usually the big problem on trash day is if I've bought something that has a lot of styrofoam packing. The city doesn't like to have that in the recycle bin (alhough I have added it on occasion without the trash truck refusing it). But often I have to meter that styrofoam out so that the regular trash isn't over-filled. I'm wondering how compacters do on styrofoam...
I don't think that the recycle trucks here do any compacting. It would be counter-productive. I've been out to the recycling facility and they have a very large complex with indoor and outdoor sorting areas, with a small army of workers who separate the various recyclables.
As far as I know there would be no fine for compacting trash here but there may be a weight limit. But since all the lifting at the curb is done with a mechanical arm, it may no longer be an issue.
I don't think that the recycle trucks here do any compacting. It would be counter-productive. I've been out to the recycling facility and they have a very large complex with indoor and outdoor sorting areas, with a small army of workers who separate the various recyclables.
As far as I know there would be no fine for compacting trash here but there may be a weight limit. But since all the lifting at the curb is done with a mechanical arm, it may no longer be an issue.
