When you come to the Merc for a tour, we show you all of our favorite things. The custom wood floors, all of the potential in phase 2, our cool cabinet hardware, and this weekend we added another thing to that list. Our new Moen GX garbage disposal (video proof of Court’s obsession at the end of this post ?). I’d never given garbage disposals much thought except in that stressful moment in the middle of the night when you can’t remember which switch on the wall is the disposal and which one is the light over the sink. But after our latest project installing a Moen GX I feel fully qualified to have an intelligent conversation all about garbage disposals.
With the GX, Moen has solved the eternal debacle, “Why do garbage disposals not come with the cord installed?” Not only that, but you have to buy extra parts, just to wire it. Not any more guys, the GX comes, just as it should, with the power cord connected.
We have an ongoing laughable but always frustrating struggle at the Merc where projects take 9x longer than they should. So when I said “we could have this thing installed in 10 minutes” I really meant an hour and 1/2. BUT GUESS WHAT?!! It only took 10 minutes!!
A few things to note, when you’re installing, make sure you pop out the plastic piece that is in the dishwasher hole. Not all sinks have dishwashers and therefore may not need the extra connection. If you do forget and connect your dishwasher hose, youre going to have a mess on your hands!
Just a heads up, you can’t overdo it with the Plumbers Putty. Whatever excess you have will ooze out and clean right off. (It’s SO satisfying as my 9 yr old would say.)
You can buy the Moen GX at Home Depot (it’s in stock at most stores!) and it’s right around $115!!
Check out our video below, It’s got flexing, the disposal being installed, Bremmer boy talking, and Court proclaiming his love over the GX over…and over….and over….?
Huge thank you to Home Depot for sponsoring this post + video!!
I live in Canada and in Calgary we have a City wide recycling and composting program (Recycling and Compost get picked up every week and garbage every other week). The program has been running in my community for over 5 years so we removed the garbage disposal that came with the house when we bought the place 4.5 years ago.
The city takes all the food scraps/lawn clippings etc to help reduce the waste going into landfills/stressing water treatment plants and composts it to use in City parks. As an individual you can also go get free compost for your gardens from what the City produces (if you don’t want to make your own). Between the recycling and composting we barely produce any real garbage.
I’m curious to know if large scale recycling/composting programs aren’t available in the USA?
On a side note, if we did need a garbage disposal the Moen is really nice looking!
I wouldn’t speak for the entire country but I don’t think it is very common at all for recycling/composting pick up. We used to have a township tax paid recycling center at my old house, but our new township has no option so we have to pay for a recycling bin from a trash provider. I also don’t think composting pick up is common (maybe in a larger city?) We have our own composting pile.
We did not replace our garbage disposal because we’ve heard it is not good for old plumbing pipes and also not good for septic systems, which we have. Canada sounds like it has really nice options for less garbage waste.
I’ve got to say that is a pretty disposal though 🙂
I just moved from the west coast to Ohio and I am so sad about the garbage situation here! Little recycling and composting and not really any expectation that things will improve. On the west coast there is a strong push toward eliminating plastics, recycling as much as possible and composting. Even businesses are expected to participate.
Interesting! Thanks for the reply and good point about older pipes. I’ve always wondered what our neighbours to the south did for recycling/composting. Is it also common not to bring your pop cans back for the 5cent deposit? I remember the last vacation I went to in the USA and I noticed a ton of aluminum cans in the garbage.
I’m sure even here some of the smaller towns/hamlets etc probably don’t have the same options for recycling but all of our the major cities in Canada and most of the medium sized towns have some sort of program to help combat excess garbage
Brooke, I think it depends on where you live in the US. I’m in California and we have widespread recycling but it is actually up to the individual cities. I just learned a few months ago that in my city we will also be going to a mandated composting program. I know my sister lived in Napa and they have had one in place for many years.
Interesting! I’m not surprised the California would be on the forefront of a recycling/composting program. It’s too bad it doesn’t seem to be nation wide but every new program and new City that joins helps the cause!
I hate all the excess packaging everything comes in and even worse how much recyclable materials make it to the dump. It would be nice not to have such excessive packaging/food waste to begin with but one step at a time I guess!
I’m in Ontario, Canada and recycling/composting/yard waste pickup is widespread here.
The municipality does hot composting so all food scraps go in the compost bin (including meat) and a variety of other things that will break down (we get a list of what can be put in each type of recycling bin). Every spring they have a weekend when you can go to the municipal yard and load up on compost and mulch for your gardens. The balance is then used in municipal plantings.
During my travels to the US I have been shocked at the lack of general recycling programs, never mind composting. I remember being at Universal Studios in Florida and getting a talk from a docent about how important the environment was and fuming – as we had been searching high and low for plastic recycling drop off so we didn’t have to put all our waste from the condo we rented in the garbage.
On the other side of the coin when travelling in Italy we discovered roadside bins for drop off. It was great. We would stop at the drop off site nearest the villa we rented while we were on our way to and from the village.
PLUMBERS PUTTY!!! aka the best way my dad would bribe me to help out with plumbing jobs when I was a kid. Ok still kinda works as an adult too =P Each project would come with a little plumbers putty creature I created out of the scraps