How to Safely Clean Broken Glass out of Your Garbage Disposal

Perhaps you overzealously put the dishes in the sink. Or dropped the jar of pickles you were trying to open. However, it happened, and getting broken glass out of your garbage disposal can make for a safety challenge. Here is a step-by-step guide to safely removing the broken glass.

Turn off power

Before you start cleaning up the mess, make sure you have turned off the power to the garbage disposal. You don’t want to go anywhere near those blades if there is any possibility of it turning on.

Put on thick gloves

To ensure you don’t get cut in the process, it’s best to put on some thick rubber gloves or work gloves. Your hands shouldn’t come into direct contact with the glass, but it is an extra precaution that is worth the small effort.

Pick out large shards

Now that the power is off, you will be tempted to pick the large pieces of glasses with your gloved hands, but it is safest to use kitchen tongs or needle nosed pliers for this task. Put the glass into a disposable container, like a box or an old yogurt carton.

Use a potato

It sounds strange, but you can use a raw potato that is the same size as the opening to clean up some of the glass. Peel the potato, cut the bottom off to create a flat surface, and push it through the opening until you reach the bottom surface. Pieces of glass will become imbedded in the potato, which can then be added to your container for disposal.

Move the blades

Chances are, you won’t get all the pieces of glass without moving the blades. You want to do this without turning the power on. If you use a hex key underneath your disposal, you can move the blades and repeat the two steps prior.

Shop Vac

Now is the time to break out the shop vacuum, or the wet/dry vacuum. Suck up all the small pieces of glass that may still be in the system.

Turn the power back on

You may want to turn the blades and vacuum a few times before you feel confident you have all the glass. Then you can restore power to your disposal. You may need to unplug your unit, hit the reset button, and plug it back in to restore power.