Next-gen improvements could ease impact on landfills
By Alan Wolf, YSN
InSinkErator, the world’s largest producer of garbage disposals, has introduced what it describes as “the next generation” of kitchen sink units.
The manufacturer’s new Power and Advance disposal series feature re-engineered MultiGrind technology that grinds more types of food waste and reduces them to finer particles for easy flow through household pipes. In addition, the products’ new SoundSeal and EZ Connect designs ensure quiet operation and simplified installation, the company said.
InSinkErator, a unit of Whirlpool, said it hopes the new features will help dispel homeowners’ plumbing concerns and encourage greater usage to divert food waste from landfills and slow the acceleration of climate change.
“Providing products for cleaner, fresher, more sustainable kitchens has been our focus for more than 85 years,” said InSinkErator President Joe Dillon. “Now, we’re proud to take the next step in combining our easiest installation technologies with our quietest and most advanced grinding technologies that will make disposing of food waste and leftovers quicker and easier than ever.”
The company cited EPA and U.S. Census Bureau statistics showing that the average family of four generates 600 pounds of food waste each year, and that food waste contributes to 18% of total methane emissions from U.S. landfills.
“Most homeowners have a real desire to maintain a more sustainable kitchen but truly don’t understand the impact of food waste on the environment and how a garbage disposal can help,” noted Mark Cammarota, InSinkErator’s vice president of marketing. To help make consumers better informed, the company has enlisted the help of popular social media master plumbers Roger Wakefield and Eric Aune and comedienne and actress Wanda Sykes for a series of educational and marketing campaigns, he said.
Developed by architect/inventor John W. Hammes, the InSinkErator was one of the first mass-produced garbage disposal products for home use when it was introduced in the late 1930s. The eponymous company flourished during the post-World War II housing boom, was bought out by Emerson Electric in 1968, and by the late 1970s was producing half of all the garbage disposal units sold worldwide.
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Today, InSinkErator continues to dominate the food waste disposal industry with a 70-plus share of the market, and was acquired last year by Whirlpool for $3 billion.
