Do you have a garbage disposal on your boat?

I have an extra one with SS grind chamber and was wondering about using it in the boat.
There is some reg about 3 mile rule dumping food overboard, so that was my only concern, like if it would become a problem if the USCG guys saw it. I personally would not have an issue using it.

And it could be good for grinding up fish bait for chumming, which technically is also food...

We only used ours if more than 3 miles offshore. I even posted a label over the sink to that effect. It was rare that we'd be cooking or otherwise generating stuff to go through it when offshore though. As far as I am concerned, it's a problem whether the CG sees it or not, because it's wrong, and against the regs.

Apparently we used to, as there is a circuit breaker labled as such, but it's not installed now.

Some new catamarans, have waste disposal chutes installed, in the galley, for organic material dumping. I have wondered about the legal issues with those, as well.

Well it is a regulation, I just question the sanity of that regulation, the disposal grinds food to minute size. The only issue is nutrient loading of the water, which considering the tiny number of boats that are out on the water, then even fewer number that would even have a garbage disposal, makes for a big fat zero.. effect on the water. It is one of those dumb regs, like in the same vein as grey water discharges or Lectrasan discharges which some would like to also see eliminated from boats, both load nutrients into the water, however my lectrasan is legal and the garbage disposal is not.

However I can buy chum and pour buckets of it into the water, loading it with nutrients and not a problem whatsoever... Or use chicken for crab bait.

Group9 said:

Some new catamarans, have waste disposal chutes installed, in the galley, for organic material dumping. I have wondered about the legal issues with those, as well.

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I had one in my catamarans as far back as 20 years ago and have one on my current vessel as well.

Its called a window

Simi 60 said:

I had one in my catamarans as far back as 20 years ago and have one on my current vessel as well.

Its called a window

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Yes, also illegal to throw whole chunks of food in the water.
I know most people think little of tossing food scraps overboard, bones, etc.. to feed the fishes
Your even required to have a visible to all garbage plan onboard if the boat is over a certain size. I have gone fishing with people who throw their leftovers onto the rocks off jetties.

sdowney717 said:

Your even required to have a visible to all garbage plan onboard if the boat is over a certain size.

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I saw this and thought "a garbage plan?" I would have never thought.. Which made me think "what are all the other things we have to do, that are pretty obscure."

Here's a PDF which discusses many such requirements:

https://www.uscgboating.org/images/420.PDF

We have a simple rule: "if it didn't originally live in this water, don't put it in".

sdowney717 said:

Yes, also illegal to throw whole chunks of food in the water. .

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Possibly only in america.

Much of what you would put though it won't be eaten by marine creatures. Some items can actually be detrimental to small bays, estuaries, etc. Last time this came up on TF, someone post information to why the rotting material was bad for small bodies of water.

Ted

O C Diver said:

Much of what you would put though it won't be eaten by marine creatures. Some items can actually be detrimental to small bays, estuaries, etc. Last time this came up on TF, someone post information to why the rotting material was bad for small bodies of water.

Ted

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Maybe if there were a ton of people using them, but the numbers just are not there and never will be. Basically food breaks down to muck, and that is what things like to eat, bottom critters, etc. on the mucky bottom. Ever feed little minnows, they eat this kind of stuff. I do not believe marine life does not eat food waste, I have fed minnows food waste. I also know crabs and shrimp eat food waste.

Simi 60 said:

Possibly only in america.

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Definitely in America.

JustBob said:

I saw this and thought "a garbage plan?" I would have never thought.. Which made me think "what are all the other things we have to do, that are pretty obscure."

Here's a PDF which discusses many such requirements:

https://www.uscgboating.org/images/420.PDF

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> 40 foot then must have a written plan. Although seems ambiguously written, 'ocean going vessels' 'engaged in commerce' 'with galley and berthing', is that 'and' or is it 'or'

United States ocean-going vessels of 40 feet or longer that are engaged in commerce or equipped with a galley and berthing must have a written waste management plan describing the procedures for collecting, processing, storing, and discharging garbage, and must designate the person in charge of carrying out the plan .

Didn't know about the food rule.. I guess I gotta feel bad about the occasional apple/peanut shell lol.

Based on the oil slick at every marina in Florida I don't see this one being enforced. Rules are rules and reality is reality.

Simi 60 said:

Possibly only in america.

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Oh...I suppose Australia doesn't have any odd or peculiar laws ??

Like you can't wear pink pants on Sundays, or its illegal to have over 100 kg of potatos ????

When I spec'd my current boat for construction, the builder told me that he could not legally install one and that it would not pass USCG inspection (I didn't / don't know that USCG inspects newly constructed recreational vessels).

Several boats ago, I installed a garbage disposal in the transom in order to grind up and dump directly overboard fish / fish guts for chumming purposes.

sdowney717 said:

Maybe if there were a ton of people using them, but the numbers just are not there and never will be.

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Following that logic, discharging oily bilge water shouldn't be a problem either.

Ted

Mine says "macerator" on it...

sdowney717 said:

Maybe if there were a ton of people using them, but the numbers just are not there and never will be. Basically food breaks down to muck, and that is what things like to eat, bottom critters, etc. on the mucky bottom. Ever feed little minnows, they eat this kind of stuff. I do not believe marine life does not eat food waste, I have fed minnows food waste. I also know crabs and shrimp eat food waste.

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It breaks down into muck? And then the bottom critters eat the muck.

Brilliant! You've solved the world's waste problems.

AusCan said:

It breaks down into muck? And then the bottom critters eat the muck.

Brilliant! You've solved the world's waste problems.

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And, what we eat breaks down to "muck" too. So,is it ok to pump that "muck" straight out too?

BruceK said:

And, what we eat breaks down to "muck" too. So,is it ok to pump that "muck" straight out too?

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Only if it is sterilized first.

My Lectrasan is perfect and legal to discharge nutrient rich muck, as much as we can possibly generate, but I can not discharge tiny ground up bits of food. The logic escapes me.

sdowney717 said:

Only if it is sterilized first.

My Lectrasan is perfect and legal to discharge nutrient rich muck, as much as we can possibly generate, but I can not discharge tiny ground up bits of food. The logic escapes me.

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What (or how) do you treat those bits of food with?

caltexflanc said:

What (or how) do you treat those bits of food with?

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Bits of food are not loaded with E coli. Food is not sewage. Ground up tiny bits of food waste is not going to waste in the water, there are creatures that will eat it. People can legally chum too.

Society has no practical alternative when dealing with sewage than to dump massive amounts in the water.
How many billions of gallon of partially treated sewage do we discharge daily?
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-pn-sewage-ocean-outfalls-20170412-story.html

So much for the idea of 'clean water'. This is a worldwide issue.

The sea life though loves to eat all that waste, they gorge on it, but it does kill reefs since it grows a lot of brown algae that smothers the reef. That waste includes much food disposal waste from kitchen sinks along with human sewage, oils, shampoo, drugs, chemicals, hormones.
http://www.slate.com/articles/healt...wage_pipes_feed_fish_and_pollute_beaches.html

Apparently with our current government, you can throw anything, anywhere, anytime.

sdowney717 said:

Only if it is sterilized first.

My Lectrasan is perfect and legal to discharge nutrient rich muck, as much as we can possibly generate, but I can not discharge tiny ground up bits of food. The logic escapes me.

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Actually you can discharge the ground up food as long as you put it through your Lectrasan and as long as you're not in a no discharge zone. Or route the disposal waste to your holding tank.

There is a way to legally use a disposal, simply pass the outflow through a screen, that will separate the water from the ground bits. Then dump the bits into the garbage. A disposal will compact all of it so you will be saving a lot of space. I watched some videos where they did that to view the ground up bits a disposal creates. So a garbage bin could be lined with a screen and used for the output of a disposal . What I don't know is if such an design would clog itself, probable depends on the density of the ground bits.

I hope that all this dumping is reserved for offshore not inshore boating.

If you can carry it onto the boat why not carry it off?

Interesting thread... I just took ours out a few weeks ago, citing, “Why the hell would you put a disposal on a boat when you can just toss it over?” Besides, it opened up a ton of space under the sink. Anyway, our marina has a free table. After I pulled it out I placed it on said table. The next day, the dockmaster, not knowing it was mine, joked with me that the free table was for marine stuff and someone had put a damn household disposal on it. We joked when I admitted it was me and it was actually from our boat. Still, he had the same attitude I did. Why? Now I know, I guess. I do have no guilt in it (until today) especially since there are plenty of boats that people live on that never go to the pumpout dock.

We also have one and just replaced it with the galley Remodel, don’t use it much if at all normally but I could certainly see using it to dispose of food waste when offshore versus trash. To the point of nothing overboard that would make dishwashers also a no-go within 3 miles?