For those out there who think they are doing the environment a favour by hand-washing their dishes rather than using the dish washer… I’m sorry to say it, but you’re doing the opposite. According to the Home Depot’s Fall magazine entitled “Eco options,” “today’s dishwashers trump hand-washing every time. The provide a consistently hygienic wash and use about 37% less water.” Even better, “Energy Star-certified washers are at least 41% more energy efficient than the minimum government requirement and use less than half the energy of a 10-year-old model and one-third less water.”
The magazine offers other helpful tips such as running the dishwasher only when it is full, turning off the machine’s drying cycle and air-drying the dishes, not pre-rinsing by hand (simply scraping food off is enough), run the washer on its shortest cycle (this is usually sufficient), running the washer during non-peak energy times (late evening or before 7a.m.–we usually do it before bed), and use natural detergents such as Seventh Generation’s Free & Clear Automatic Dishwasher Detergent or liquid.
Are there still some naysayers out there? I bet there are. What about the material and energy needed to manufacture and run the dishwasher, doesn’t that use a lot of resources? Washing dishes by hand only requires some water, soap, a cloth, and human energy–that sounds much better for the environment. At first it does, and I thought about this. However, I then thought about the 37% less water usage. If you think about adding this 37% up every time you do the dishes for the lifetime of your washer, that is a significant amount of water. The chemicals needed to purify the water for household use and the fossil fuels needed to heat that water would probably quickly exceed the energy/raw material use of the dishwasher itself. According to a University of Bonn (Germany) study, dishwasher use only half the energy and one-sixth of the water used by hand-washers. Even the most frugal hand-washer cannot compete with dishwashers–sorry. To read more about this study and some great critical comments about it see this article by Treehugger.com.
I’m fairly convinced with the evidence I’ve collected while reading about this topic, but what if you don’t have a dishwasher nor the money to buy one? Well, the most efficient way to hand-wash your dishes is with a double-sink. Half-fill one sink with soapy water and the other sink with hot, clear water (use a dish pan if you don’t have a double-sink). Soak and scrub the dirty dishes in the soapy water, rinse them in the clean water, and then set them out to dry. Letting your dishes air-dry is actually more hygienic than using a towel and reduces laundry. It is also wise to use non-toxic dish soaps that don’t add harsh chemicals to the water system. Seventh Generation offers great soaps of this kind and can be found at many household retailers.
So, if you’ve been using your dishwasher to store your plastic bags or Tupperware containers, clean it out and put it to good use–you’ll be doing the environment a favour. Have a great, green weekend!
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