Greening-Up the Dishwasher

 

In our role as the local Green Visitors Center, we aspire to operate our building in an environmentally friendly manner. We test out various products and approaches to cleaning and maintenance, in order to be able to recommend to folks what works and what doesn’t. The idea is to save our friends and neighbors the time, money, and trouble from having to do the research on their own.

We’ve been looking at how to get our dishes clean without using phosphates. Seventeen states - Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin - have passed legislation banning all but trace amounts of phosphates in the detergents used in home dishwashing machines. As a result of this ban, the larger manufacturers of detergents have introduced lower-phosphate formulas into the marketplace.

What’s the problem with this mineral, you ask? Part of the issue starts when phosphorous is mined. Mining operations leave piles of mineral tailings that include toxic levels of heavy metals like lead and uranium. These by-products from mining can leach into groundwater and streams, making their way into our food chain.

Mining is only part of the problem. The phosphates used in traditional automatic dishwasher detergents go down the drain into our water supply, where they cause other issues. Too much phosphorus acts like a fertilizer and increases the growth of algae and aquatic weeds. When these plants die, their decomposition depletes the oxygen needed by fish and underwater plants. In other words, phosphates kill fish.

Phosphates may get dishes sparkly clean in your home dishwasher, but at a cost to our health. So we’ve been on a quest to find a healthy alternative. We’ve so far been unhappy with the results of the “natural” detergents we’ve tried in our high-efficiency dishwasher. This week we’ll be conducting experiments with a homemade recipe that consists of borax, washing soda, salt, citric acid and vinegar. If this is a winner, it will not only be safe to use, but will also save us money. We’ve been reading suggestions from lots of other folks and will also try a few of those out to determine the best option. We’ll keep you posted here.

And in terms of overall energy efficiency in your home, we invite readers to consider how to reduce your use of water and electricity when doing the dishes. One simple way to cut back on your energy bills is to turn off the “automatic heat dry” feature of your dishwasher and let the dishes dry naturally. Turning off the heated drying cycle on your dishwasher cuts in half the energy used for a load of dishes. (source: Carroll Energy Solutions)

If any readers have tried-and-true recipes for dishwasher detergent – or any other household product – that you’d like to share, please post them here. We’re always on the lookout for alternatives to the expensive, potentially harmful products on grocery shelves. Thanks for helping us share information with other readers.

HOMEMADE DISHWASHER RECIPE UPDATE:

Here is the recipe we found on diynatural.com: Combine in a 32-ounce container: 1/2 cup borax, 1/2 cup washing soda, 1/4 cup citric acid, and 1/4 cup Kosher salt. Use one tablespoon per dishwasher load, and fill rinse compartment with white vinegar.

Staff reports that this homemade dishwashing soap works great on dishes and glasses, but not so well on plastic containers, where residue of the powder remained after the cycle was over. We'll keep experimenting and will pass along what we find.