I semi- regularly make my own dried, aged meat. As the first step, I keep it for 24-48 hours in sugar. Sugar sucks water out beautifully and when I'm done with it, it's dripping wet.
So I have 10kg of dripping wet sugar that cannot go into compost bin (meat byproduct, not allowed by law where I live), and cannot be put in the general trash bin (trash should be dry). How can I get rid of it, without using large amount of water and risking pipe clogging? Environmentally friendly ways preferred.
There are a couple options, in increasing order of effort:
Added clarification for dissolving sugar:
~5 litres of tap-cold, 15C water is the minimum amount physically required to dissolve ~10 kg sucrose for energy and water-saving purposes. More water can be used to dissolve this.
Dissolved sucrose flows easily and further dilutes very readily. The same cannot be said for other types of fluid sugars, i.e. high-fructose corn syrup, honey, caramel - these flow and dissolve very differently, and in the case of honey, may rapidly crystallize before dissolving.
The experimental solubility of sucrose in water (grams per gam) is 1.94 @15C, 1.89 @10c, 1.85 @5C, 1.81 @0C. Given a worst-case scenario with 10 kg sucrose saturated solution at 15C being instantaneously chilled and ignoring the enthalpy of crystallization:
At 10C, 258 g sucrose will precipitate, requiring an additional 138 mL of water (slightly more than half a cup) to remain dissolved;
At 5C, 464 g sucrose will precipitate, requiring an additional 251 mL of water (one cup) to remain dissolved;
At 0C, 671 g sucrose will precipitate, requiring an additional 371 mL of water to remain dissolved - if your indoor pipes are at 0C, you've got bigger problems to worry about.
The kitchen sink and not flush toilets is the preferred disposal receptacle for both efficiency of water use and ease of addressing clogs.
Both should have p-bends/air traps to stop sewer gases entering the home, though the kitchen sink will 1) be more easily accessible with the trap normally in a vertical line under the sink drain, 2) the toilet's thermal mass may rapidly cool any added hot water, and 3) some toilets may feature multiple bend traps, leaving undissolved sugar stuck in harder to reach areas. Regardless, both sinks and toilets will clog if enough solid sugar is dumped in as it settles.
Figures of toilet cross-sections from Wikipedia.
Graph from The Engineering Toolbox.
For future projects, would you consider reusable silica dessicants? Dehydration time would be longer and you'd need a larger volume container, but you would also not need to have it in direct contact with the meat.
Dump the sugar in non-standard-refuse dumps operated by the local city district. Where I live, there are refuse dumps operated by the city districts, such as electronics, garden waste, large refuse (e.g. furniture), and DIY waste. They usually accept most non-standard waste, and I expect soggy meat-laced sugar will find its appropriate demise there. :)
Find an apiarist (bee keeper) and donate the sugar to them to feed their bees. Or donate it to a pig or chicken farmer to enrich their feed. Or feed the humming birds.
No you don't have to worry about the meat flavor affecting the taste of honey because that isn't what the sugar is for. An experienced apiarist will know when to feed the sugar to the bees to prevent this.
In particular, bees frequently run low on honey in the spring time (particularly if the spring thaw comes late). This can lead to colony starvation. Apiarists will feed bees sugar, either solid or as a syrup to prevent this. Sugar is also widely used to stimulate a colony to increase brood rearing.
The two main things that would be of concern for an apiarist is the presence of salt (a little is ok, a lot is toxic to bees), or the fermentation of yeast (again toxic to bees.) However any natural flavors that might have been extracted from the meat should be of little consequence to the bees.
As far as pig or chicken farmers go. Both pigs and chickens will eat just about anything. While no one would feed their pigs or chickens just sugar both absolutely love sugar. It's probably more feasible for a pig farmer as 10kg is easily consumed by just a few pigs as an addendum to their normal diet. For chickens it would depend on the size of flock. The primary concern is here is if it considered an animal by product there can be restrictions on where you feed it. For example if it is a beef byproduct you would never feed it cows.
Sugar water is all that is really in humming bird feeders. Any meat flavor may or may not make an impact but i doubt they would care.
If your trash has to be dry, then you can try mixing your wet sugar with kitty litter. You will have to experiment as to the exact proportions and mixing method (I suppose you will have to pour the sugar onto the litter, not the other way round), but it really does its job in creating easy-to-dispose clumps.
It is not necessarily environmentally friendly, since kitty litter production and transport is energy-hungry, but drying it in the oven and similar also eats up a lot of energy.
Find someone really into composting at home to compost it for you.
Animal by product or not, sugar is an excellent addition to a compost pile. Sugar is particularly useful in raising the temperature of a green pile to speed up the breakdown of cellulose
Any home composter aware of this trick would be happy to take the sugar off your hands.
10kg is a lot, but I have made simple syrup from sugar. Use a 1:1 ratio of boiling hot water to sugar. Keep it in a large maple syrup jar or other jug in the frige. From there, you can use it in any savory recipe like chili, and would be especially good in sauces like teriyaki glaze, BBQ sauce, ketchup. (you'd be surprised how much sugar is in all of the above sauces!). If you get good at making your own home recipes, you can bottle them and give to family. Maybe more labor intensive than you're thinking, but the sugar wouldn't go to waste!
For a different approach, why sugar? Rice and salt are known sorbents, and might offer different venues of disposal (including cooking something else).
I suppose contact with raw meat potentially "contaminates" whatever sorbent you use, so it should be cooked after thorough thermal treatment. How about 10 kilos of meat-flavoured strawberry jam? ;)
Make booze.
Put sugar in a large saucepan, add water and flavourings (elderflowers makes it into elderflower champane, ginger and tartaric acid makes it into ginger beer), bring to the boil, turn off heat and leave to cool. Add yeast and put it somewhere warm for a few days. Drink when it is nice.
I have no experience on what effect the meat juices will have on the product. The boiling process will destroy any pathogenic bacteria that may have been present, and I would guess the remaining meat juices will do nothing but ensure the yeast has the micronutrients it needs, but I could be wrong and it will impart a flavour.
[EDIT] I will highlight that in the comments the OP claims to be an experienced brewer and states this will not work. I am in not position to dispute them, so everyone should bare that in mind if they try this.
