I'm starting a green living series of blogs with different issues to tackle. The first part is that eternal question, should I turn on the dishwasher, or do the dishes by hand?
Yay for Hand-washing?
There are many pros for hand-washing over dishwashers.
For one thing, ideally speaking, you can control how much water you spend or waste, whereas the dishwasher will spend the same whether you're washing 3 dishes and 3 spoons, or whether you're washing a full load for 8 people.
There's also much to be said for brute strength: give me an iron sponge, and I'll scrub the hell out of anything.
And the biggie, regular dish soap is phosphate-free which is a big environmental plus.
Nay for Hand-washing?
Now, before you get all happy and proceed to unplug your dishwasher, you have to realize that people are not really ideal. A European study found that "hand washers used as much as 27 gallons of water and 2.5 kWh of energy to wash 12 place settings, compared with the 4 gallons and 1.5 kWh used by a hyperefficient dishwasher to wash the same number of dishes." So in reality, in most cases, when washing by hand, you're actually spending both more energy and more water.
Of course bad habits can make dishwashers inefficient. Here are important ones to avoid:
- Habits like running it when you only have a few dishes inside. Wait till the dishwasher is full before running it.
- Or my favorite, doing like Habib and a lot of Americans here do. They "rinse" the dishes first, which actually turns out to be washing the dishes complete with dish sponge, dish soap, and scrubbing. You might as well just wash the dishes by hand and skip the dishwasher. They fail to realize that if you're using a modern dishwasher with a effective detergent (i.e. the powder and not the gel type because gels are not compatible with protein and starch removing enzymes) pre-washing is not needed.
A similar but more efficient way to remove any grime or food material from the dishes is to use a paper towel and wipe the dishes off without wasting all that water, and then put them in the dishwasher. A paper towel is better than a cotton cloth towel evironmentally and economically, UNLESS you're careful and efficient about quickly washing your cloth and not use any hot water.
Now here's the thing. Dishwasher detergent is at the same place laundry detergent was back in the mid 1990s in terms of phosphate. Nowadays, pretty much all laundry detergent is phosphorous free. Not true for dishwater detergent except if you find a few environmental brands like Seventh Generation products. However, there's currently a move in the U.S. for commercial brands to move to phosphate-free products or limit the phosphate content to a very small percentage, but it might take a while before the majority of commercial dishwasher detergents are that way.
Do It Yourself
If you're like me and love to dabble and try stuff, it is supremely easy and way cheaper to make your own Home-made Eco and People-friendly Dishwasher Detergent:
Recipe:
Mix into a container:
- 1/2 cup of Borax
- 1/2 cup washing soda (a.k.a. soda ash)
- 3-4 Tbs. of salt (softens the water).
- 1/4 cup of food citric acid powder.
Borax is the commercial name of sodium borate, very common and should be available. Here, it's available at walmart in the laundry detergent aisle, but pharmacies or any kind of chemical supplies store for schools or labs or whatever should carry it.
Soda Ash is also very very common, ask around. Here it's also available at walmart.
If you can't find citric acid powder, try some type of unsweetened powdered lemonade mix (with no strong food colors).
* Shake and mix it all up. Use 1 Tbs. per load, a heaped one if you feel the need. It's okay if it clumps, that's due to the citric acid.
* Buy a gallon of white vinegar, and if you don't have citric acid powder, also buy citric acid juice from the supermarket or use regular lemon juice and add 2 tsp. of lemon juice/citric acid below.
In the rinse cup area, fill it with white vinegar.
You can try to invent your own recipe or look around online, just stay away from liquid hand soap (it suds a lot) and don't forget to add salt to the detergent, vinegar and lemon juice somewhere in the rinsing process, especially if you have hard water. Otherwise you'll end up with a filmy white surface.
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