The most important thing about a garbage disposal is to know what you can put in it to dispose of properly. If you want your garbage disposal to last, you should never use it to dispose of these 9 things that are listed below.

Coffee grounds are an item that have similar things in common with other household items. These items have the same features as coffee grounds and tend to get sticky when they’re wet. When you throw coffee grounds down your disposal, they’ll clump together – just like they do when you pour water on them. When they clump together, they stick to each other and everything around them – including your disposal.

Coffee grounds can stick to disposal blades and to the sides of pipes,  If you drop coffee grounds into your drain, they could potentially make a massive clog in no time. The more coffee grounds you throw in your disposal, the worse the clog will get. Dispose of your coffee grounds properly in a garbage can and never in a drain or disposal.

Do you know that pasta will expand when it gets wet? Any household waste that expands when it gets wet shouldn’t be put into your garbage disposal. When pasta expands in your garbage disposal, it may become too unwieldy for your disposal blades to process appropriately. When your disposal grinds the pasta into tiny chunks, there’s a tendency that the blades will get stuck in it.

The pasta may not make it through the disposal and into the drain. Not only will pasta impede your disposal blades, but it’ll also create a clog. So, don’t risk it! Throw your pasta remains in a garbage can and not in your garbage disposal.

Your garbage disposal contains blades. But these blades aren’t powerful enough to break up animal bones. Dispose of bones properly into a garbage can if you don’t want your disposal to chip, crack, or completely break the blades.

Nuts will turn into peanut butter. One of the characteristics of peanut butter is its stickiness. If your garbage disposal is poured with peanut butter, it will be nearly impossible to completely clean. The butter will stick to the sides of the drain and can cause nasty clogs or even attract pests. So, throw away your butter waste into a garbage can.

Your garbage disposal isn’t your garbage can. The causes of garbage disposal clogs are not just about the food waste mentioned above, but also because of paper towels, bags, peels, and other trash being put into a garbage disposal. That type of  garbage will not pass through the disposal, and it will create a clog. Throw it away properly in a garbage can.

Fibrous vegetables like rhubarb and celery tend to break down into stringy pieces. Those stringy pieces tend to tangle themselves up in your disposal blades when you try to run it. Dealing with the tangled pieces isn’t worth the time you’ll save dropping vegetables down the disposal. Throw out a fibrous vegetables in your garbage can instead.

As with bones, the blades of your garbage disposal aren’t strong enough to break up the hard seeds of a fruit. Throw fruit seeds into the garbage or compost, so they don’t hurt your disposal or clog up your drains.

Every time we encounter a clog problem, we are often tempted to dump drain cleaners into a garbage disposal. We think it’s the right solution, because that’s what the products are for, after all. Unfortunately, drain cleaners cause more problems than they solve. Drain cleaning chemicals can’t tell the difference between a clog and your pipes. The more you use cleaning chemicals, the more they’ll eat away at your pipes. When you overuse them, they’ll wear away your ducts until they leak. Don’t use conventional drain cleaning chemicals, no matter how bad the clog. There’s always a better solution.

Paint should never be poured directly into your garbage disposal. Oil paints will sit in your pipes, harden, and can be damaging. Dilute any paint with water until it becomes clear before you pour it down any drains.

While garbage disposals are incredibly useful for disposing of food waste, they can’t dispose of everything. No matter how powerful your garbage disposal is, there are certain things you should never throw into it.