1. Trash is good near the prep sink, but the orientation depends entirely on your layout. Do you have one to post?

2. The only foot pedal brand I know is Hafele. You don't touch the cab or pull. Kateskouros had a thread recently about hers not behaving itself. Sounds like the band inside may have disconnected. Beagles posted a link to an older thread about the same problem happening for others. IIRC, Hafele has a fix. You might check out Kate's post. Now that I decided on a Tapmaster, I'm considering going all the way with a trash pedal too. Hands free all the way....

3. Are you planning an 18" pullout with trash in front and recycling in the back? Pretty common. We also mix recycling, and I have this set-up. The bins are of equal size. Could you do a 15" trash pullout and a separate recycle can someplace else, like another cab or under the sink?

We ended up doing 2 trash pullouts. One double bin is on prep island to the left of the prep sink. One double bin is to right of main kitchen sink. We just felt that we had to have trash next to each sink and did not want to have to go around island everytime wanted to throw something out.
Note: Hubby's idea - one of the only things he insisted on!! Yes he is a neatnik

mixed recycling is a big volume.

true trash is a small volume most days.
for this trash i have a drawer under the sink.
i pull the drawer open and plop stuff into a bin.

For orientation, I'd choose whichever handedness you are as that will be your natural way to move. My ILs have a left hand orientation and it drives me CRAZY!(I'm right handed) This is if the layout truly allows the choice.

Blum makes servo drive which works really well for the trash drawer. These are pricy. My DH's cousin has it (in Germany) and I was green with envy.

I put in a large bin for the recycle and smaller bin for the trash on the top of chrome rack to get it closer to the top both in the same drawer. They are both in the same drawer, front trash and back recycle. I did not want two separate drawers given that my kitchen is limited in size :) I also did not want to use a large bin for garbage since I only generate a small amount of garbage versus the recycle amount.

Here is a link that might be useful: Blum servo drive

Kaismom --> Oh my god! Me want Servo!! Did you see the video? How cool is that! Damn those german engineers:)

We generate a lot more recycle than trash as well. what size cabinet did you use? We do not have room for more than 1 cabinet. Does any manufacturer make a bigger recycle and a small trash set/ up?

I am leftie but DH and other users are righties, So I guess we go with what ever fits.

I use this SS from revashelf. It's insanely expensive but was a splurge I still am enjoying tremendously. Note that it is available for far less online, though not cheap enough!

Here's what I like:

- The SS is very washable; no need for any liners.
- The bins lift out beautifully.
- The handles on the bins work perfectly too; I can carry both in one hand.
- I have no problem with the size of these bins, but they aren't giant. The smaller I use for trash; it's perfect. The larger I use for 'sloppy' recycling and it's a little small. I'm OK with the tradeoff in size though because:
- There is a plastic ledge on top of the bins on which I place a plastic bucket for compost. In this way I have all 3 trash needs in one pullout. I love this!
- With a large sink there's room to fit this pullout underneath the sink itself, even including the compost.
- NB this works in part because I have a second, "dry" recycling compost available to me for papers and the like.

wow aliris has four trash containers. From big to small, each one purposed and sized accordingly. I feel underequipped in dealing with trash.

I'd like to mention another factor in regards to the Blum servo drive. One must learn not to let one's body touch the drawer fronts. This is a new habit that one learns by operant conditioning. In a few weeks it becomes unconscious. So far so good. All your visitors will trigger drawer openings and this will condition the conversation from then on, so once again it conditions your life for you. You must have a "what to say" to close the discussion, to get off the topic and back to other other things you want to be talking of.

I have thought that a large overhang would prevent triggering; but Blum people have told me it's not going to resolve the new-learner accidental triggering phenomenon.

The Blum servo drive has a large initial cost so it makes more sense to install it on all drawers instead of on a few.

If you go with the Hafele foot pedal, be sure to tell your cabinet maker you don't want soft close on that cabinet, as the Hafele won't work with soft close. I love the foot pedal...it's awesome. It's on an 18" pull out with two cans of equal size. The drawer pops about 3/4 of the way out so the first can is completely accessible. I have to pull it out to get to the back can. If my hands are dirty, I push it closed with my leg. I recycle everything possible and I probably empty the trash daily or every other day and the recycling about every 2-3 days.

Aliris,

I love your stainless trash cans.. I like the handles as we have a bit of a trek to the big recycle container.
One question? Can you use the bins with the hafele foot pedal? Or do you have to use the rev a shelf soft close?

Luv2Laf --> I just emailed the cabinet guy about the softclose. Thank you for the pointer

Davidro --> thinking more about the blum, I agree with you that it may be prone to accidental pop-opens.. I like the foor pedal as it is clearly activated by an intentional, explicit action.

lalitha -- I don't know about the foot pedal/soft close. I can tell you this though and so I guess maybe the answer is 'no', you don't need or receive a RAS soft-close. My stuff came just as hardware in a box. You screw it into the cabinet and screw it onto a drawer front -- that causes a framework to pull out, guided by the hardware you've screwed into the cabinet. So ... there's no soft close that comes from RAS. unless there's some hardware from the foot pedal that interferes I should think it would be OK.

You can get the installation information online from RAS - it's just a sheet of paper. You might also just phone them. It's not really very sophisticated stuff - 'specially considering that price!

DrollDavid - I think I've got 5 trash bins, though it depends what you call "trash". That is, I've got 2 compost buckets, 2 recycling locales ("wet" and "dry") and one small trash. But where do you stop counting? There's also all the bins outside, and recycling (just lost the trash there - enough is enough. This house is a work in progress so I just turned my attention to bins briefly) in the adjoining laundry room and one in the bathroom adjoining that.

But note that all those trash bins in the kitchen really encompass a couple merged rooms I'd say. The 'dry' recycling is around the back side of my island where there's a spot for me to dump mail (and then keep it falling straight down and under into the 'dry' recycling bin aka integrated junk mail bucket). There are two compost buckets of different, small sizes for prep and cleanup sink/zones. Trash is trash. Like -- I think it was buehl who has often mentioned - I think I regret not situating the trash bin closer to the prep and not cleanup surface. But the under-sink space worked better at the cleanup sink.

In re non-hand-openers: fwiw I don't actually ever have a problem pulling out the trash bin. It's a pull out so the cans come out when the door is pulled forward. With a large-enough handle on it, it's not been a problem for me at least ... just saying. For me, I'd have trouble aligning my body and feet underneath the cabinet, getting all that timed correctly. I do a lot of swiveling in my kitchen and grabbing and tossing -- being able to grab open the door with my outstretched arms I'm guessing would work better for me. For sure YMMV!

ok. yes, my unit as breezy says is "not behaving" at ALL. i'm still waiting for installer to take yet another look at it and also forwarding the old thread to him. but in the meantime oh. my. God. the servo drive is absolute kitchen PORN. when i was planning the space i had the electrician install a box inside the island so i could store a family wireless printer in one of the slide out shelves ...and wouldn't you know it? it is within perfect reach of my trash bin IF i were to go out and purchase one of these amaaaaaaazing servo units.

and as i have come to realize, less is NOT more. MORE is MORE. and i'm into more lately so i see no reason to deprive myself.

This is what I did. We have a rather convoluted compost system.

Even though I saw Servo drive in action, I did not install the servo drive because I did not trust the reliability over the long run )(10 plus years). I thought that if it starts to get finicky then I would have to spend alot of money to replace the sensors and motors. I have learned over the years that mechanical things generally do not outlive my needs...

There are two buckets in the left drawer which is 18 inches wide. The front one contains a smaller garbage bin with a chrome rack that holds liners underneath. The rear one holds a larger recycle bin.

I actually wanted the type of recycle drawer that had a bottom to the drawer rather than the type that you drop the bins from the top. The Reason was because I could use the bottom for storage by lifting up the bin by putting a rack. This is a perfect place to store the garbage liners.

Since then, I have decided not to use plastic liners for environmental reasons and use the paper grocery bags to line the garbage. I have very tiny small amount of wet garbage so it has not been an issue.

I have two compost bins under the sink. One is marked CITY and the other is HOUSE. The city one gets the compost that goes into the city: food scraps, cooked food, meats, bread etc. Our city gets everything. For example, when I make chicken stock, what I throw out after I strain goes into the CITY compost. I line them with the biodegradable bags so it is easier to dispose.

HOUSE gets uncooked vegie peels and fruit peels only.

I often work with the compost bins on the counter or in the sink. If I am prepping, I will leave the compost bin in the sink and throw the scraps into the bin using the same motion that I would use for throwing the scraps into the sink.

here are some ideas.

http://www.richelieu.com/catalogPdf/download.php/Fr/1000276/Section+6G%3A+Watebins+and+Recycling+Centers.pdf

Also look at Hafele and Rev-a-shelf catalogs on-line.

Well, even though the servo-drive would be handy, and DH (the engineer) would think it's really cool, it would take the dogs about 1/2 a nanosecond to figure out if they touch the trash cabinet, it would open, thereby providing a reward. They are quite familiar with operant conditioning, after all.

I'm lucky that they haven't fully examined the "magic ice and water dispenser" in the fridge door.

OMG the DOG. It never occurred to me that the dog could be a problem. We have a dog!

Check out the cute pooch in the cute video prancing with the cute guy. Somehow these adorable creatures all manage to be so well house-broken they actually look in on the dog food and then leave it there... uh huh. Seems a pipe dream like the rest to me! There's a link to the video in Kaismoms' first post ... but kaismom -- you didn't notice that breach of the dogfood fortifications in the video? You should check out DrollDavid's Swedish IKEA dogchair video too while we're peering at video-dog-behavior.

i wonder who will invent a robust structure that lets raccoons and bears learn (by operant conditioning) to sort out garbage for us. It might be a win win win for urban wildlife, for humans who are never going to be good sorters (face it people) and for the dumps that we won't have to make.

Here is a link that might be useful: the thread about cat furniture and dog furniture

I believe in keeping it simple. We use a freestanding garbage can that has a step pedal to open the lid. It can move around as needed. Can be wiped down or washed out easily. It cost approx $30 at Walmart and did not use cabinet space. It is a white steel container with a stainless lid.
I do not see the point in paying good money for a cabinet and then putting garbage in it. We had a trash pullout in our first house and it was a royal pain to clean in the cabinet and I never felt it got clean enough in the back. I did not like that people had to open cabinets to find it if one of us was not right there to point it out. It also required being pulled open, which is a pain if you have messy hands at the moment. I was concerned about cleaning the front of the cab enough without stripping the finish. I feel no worries about scrubbing our garbage can and disinfecting it. If it gets beat up, I can replace it for less than $50.... I would not give up any of the cabs in our current layout to put garbage in them. The garbage can is slim enough to not take up as much square footage as if it were a pullout.

This post is timely for me as I'm working on my cabinet layout with respect to storage, trash, etc. Lalitha, thanks for instigating this discussion!

In addition to SERVO-DRIVE, Blum also offers TIP-ON. Has anyone here looked into this option for their trash drawer? I will call Blum this week and post what I learn, but it looks like this can be used with their Tandem plus line (without Blumotion), and one just needs to nudge the drawer for it to open. So, it looks to be similar in concept to SERVO-DRIVE, but without the electrical mechanism. Maybe someone here knows more details?

I like the idea of the Hafele pedal, too, it seems more practical if pets are in the house, however, is the step lever noticeable with the toe kick? I have only seen one photo of this in use, I think in rmkitchen's kitchen. The Blum product is pretty cool, though.

We have the Servo-drive for our trash pull-out and love it. I like that there is no foot pedal, so the cabinet/toe kick blend right in with the rest of the kitchen. I haven't noticed much accidental triggering - it is not overly sensitive. We don't have dogs, but I can see how that would be an issue. As for the reliability, we've only had it for about 4 months, so we are keeping fingers crossed!

I've seen TIP-ON, on the Tandem plus line (without Blumotion). It is what it is. Good.

I've see the Servo-drive too. It is what it is. Good also.