Our dishwasher is dead. Long live the Dishwasher! So, as I wait for the repairman, I am hand washing all the dishes that I had stuffed haphazardly into the dishwasher, pre-death. Serves me right - dishwasher Karma you might say.
So, this is how I did my dishes. I turned on a bit of water, got a good dishsoap going, turned off the water, soaped up all my dishes, turned on the water, rinsed them, put them in the drying rack. Granted, this is not my favorite way of passing the time post-dinner, but I did manage to get a bit of Zen going on - and I was surprised at how short a time it took me to wash an entire dishwasher full of dishes.
So (are you stil with me?)...are dishwashers the anti-green or are they better at conserving water than yours truly? If I have to do battle against the dishwasher like John Henry the Steel Driving Man, so be it. But before I do that - what do you think?
5 comments:
Our little retreat home doesn't have a dishwasher and I kinda feel like you did...it's not so bad and never takes as long as I think.
But I don't know which is "greener."
You know, everything I read always seems to say that the newer dishwashers are more efficient than handwashing. You also have to run a full load for maximum efficiency. Our new dishwasher seems to run for an hour, so it's kind of hard to believe. Washing the pots and pans by hand is hard enough -- there's no way I'm adding dishes!
i say the machine wins. they get hotter and the dishes get cleaner. they recycle the water, too, like car wash places. we bought one when our conked out last year that is energy star. it is a lot more efficient than i am. i always let the water run down the drain when i am washing, despite all my best intentions to always reuse greywater.
I forth the idea of green dishwashers! There was a recent report that dishwashing by hand with the water running uses more water than a new dishwasher. Sigh. Wish we had one.
But (isn't there always a but?) - think of the energy and materials used to make such a big thing...and is it recyclable?
appliances, due to their high metal content, are typically recycled. the scrap metal market is high now. that's why the installers gladly take your old appliances for free, as they can get $$ from the metal recycling market for it. i live in portland and at a recent visit to our dump, they talked about how fridges and other appliances are taken apart and nearly 100% recycled.
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