The Great Dishwashing Debate

To machine wash, or to hand wash that is the question! ...that I will try to help you answer, because the answer is different for each person, but some key tips hold true for both, like:

Soap

What dish soap you use is on of the most important things about washing dishes in an environmentally friendly fashion. This is because everything else that goes down the drain is water and food, so unless you had uranium for dinner, it is biodegradable. When looking for environmentally friendly dish soap try to find one that do not contain butyl cellosolve, petroleum, triclosan and phosphates. Instead, think of getting one with ingredients like coconut or another plant base, grain alcohol, rosemary or sage.

Other things are different for the different methods, so here are some notes for each individually:



Hand Washing

Make sure you stop the water from running while you wash, because running water is one of the fastest ways to waste water. Ensure you don't over fill the sink; you only need a couple inches of water to wash dishes! If you have a two basin sink have one full of warm soapy water, and the other full of hot rinsed water Start by washing glasses, then you cleanest dishes, and saving greasy pots or pans till the end. If you have only one basin, fill it with warm soapy water, and store the washed dishes on a dish rack or in a large bowl/pan, and then rinse after they are all washed.


Dishwashers


For machine washing it really breaks down into two main segments, saving conserving water, and efficient drying. Older dishwashers use 30 to 53 litres of water. Newer models (after 1994) use 15 to 38 litres. More energy-efficient models use less than 20 litres of water for a cycle. So the newer the dishwashers are more "water-efficient". Whatever amount of water it uses, is how much it will use every time, even if there is only half a load of dishes. For drying, the most energy efficient way is to simply stop the dishwasher after the last rinse, and let the dishes air dry. Most dishwashers heat the dishes up and "bake" them dry, so if your dishwasher has a no-heat drying option that circulates room temperature air through with a fan to dry, which uses far less energy.

Two quick extras on dishes:
1. Never wash dishes that aren't dishwasher safe because they may leak harmful chemicals into the water.
2. Never keep your dishwasher right beside your refrigerator, because the heat the dishwasher produces will make the refrigerator work harder to keep cool.

**if you are in the market for a new dishwasher, the EnerGuide will tell you what kind of energy efficiency it has, or you can simply look for one with the ENERGY STAR mark.**

Here is the link to BC Hydro's website, which has more information if you are interested. :)

http://www.bchydro.com/guides_tips/green-your-home/appliances_guide/washing_dishes.html