Dishwashing and Environmental Responsibility

Although dishwashing tends to be somewhat less impactful on the environment than doing laundry, there are nevertheless steps that we can take to ensure that our dishes do not become clean at the expense of the environment:

1. Run the dishwasher with full loads only. This saves water, minimizes the use of detergent, and reduces electrical consumption. However, dishes that sit in the dishwasher waiting to be washed need to be rinsed beforehand (more on this later), since dishwashers will generally not remove hardened food particles.
2. When running the dishwasher, ensure that settings such as a pre-rinse or heat-drying are turned off. They consume electricity with little or no benefit.
3. Use phosphate-free dish detergents, which are only slightly more expensive than their phosphate counterparts. Otherwise, buy a detergent with as little phosphate as possible. Although phosphates are a naturally occurring substance, a phosphate imbalance in rivers and lakes can result in an algae bloom, which blocks out sunlight and kills many aquatic species (and in some cases can even be lethal to humans).
4. Besides phosphates, most detergents contain numerous chemicals that are harmful to aquatic life and are not filtered out by waste treatment plants. Some chemical residue may also remain on washed dishes. If possible, buy an eco-friendly detergent such as those made by:

• • BioKleen. The company was founded in the 1980s by Jim Rimer, a former chemicals salesperson who was fired when he attempted to teach customers about the safe use of the products he was selling.
  • ECOS, which produces natural fruit and herb-scented dish detergents.
  • ThreeMain. The company markets a wide variety of vegetable-based, non-corrosive, biodegradable cleaning products and offers a subscription fulfillment service.
  • Seventh Generation, a company whose eco-friendly products are widely available in retail stores.
  • PUBLIC GOODS, which uses a membership model to deliver eco-friendly products of all kinds (including products made from bamboo instead of trees) at reasonable prices. The company’s commitment to reforestation is reflected by its planting one tree for each new member.

5. Don’t wash pans with non-stick surfaces in the dishwasher. Instead, wash pans by hand to preserve the pan and prevent particles that break off from the non-stick surface from getting in the dishwater and in your food.
6. Be careful with plastics and the dishwasher. Many plastics are not dishwasher safe and will melt or degrade in the dishwasher. A safe rule is to wash all plastics by hand.
7. Don’t simply wash and rinse with a fresh supply of water for each item. Instead, use a dishpan (or a plugged sink) filled with soapy water to soak all the items and wash them. Then you can rinse everything at once with cold water.
8. Don’t use too much detergent. Newer automatic dishwashers require very little detergent, and we typically tend to use too much detergent when handwashing dishes.
9. Pay attention to packaging. In general, avoid dish detergents in a container with a resin ID code of 3, 6, or 7. And avoid items like plastic-wrapped dishwasher pods.
10. In fact, it’s wise to avoid dishwasher pods Many are individually wrapped in plastic, and their coating is harmful to aquatic life.
11. Be sure to recycle the plastic containers from the detergents.