Let’s say you’re about to clean your dishes, and you want to do it in the best way environmentally possible. So do you use your energy-efficient dishwasher, or do wash your dishes by hand? It might seem like a simple question, but man oh man there are a lot of answers (and a lot of other websites which have covered this question, with one result or the other). I’ll try to look at both sides of this surprisingly heated debate.
Water Use
A modern dishwasher will use less water than you would if you hand-washed your dishes. But this is assuming that you hand wash your dishes several times a day instead of leaving them in the sink for a “big wash”, which I always end up doing. This also assumes that you don’t use too much water pre-rinsing the dishes. So basically, it all boils down to efficiency of scale (doing a large load is more efficient than doing many smaller loads of dishes). If you only do large loads and moderate your water use, hand-washing is more efficient. But the smaller your loads are and the more water you use, the bigger the advantage of using a dishwasher.
Energy Use
Most of the energy for washing dishes (whether by hand or by dishwasher) comes from heating up the water (unless you like to wash your dishes with ice-cold water). Obviously, the dishwasher uses some electricity on top of that, so hand-washing wins this battle.
Time
Dishwashers will save you time. Just put in some dishes, turn it on, and walk away. But sometimes you open the dishwasher when it’s done, and some of the pans and dishes are still dirty. The more that happens, the smaller the time advantage that dishwashers have.
Overall Environmental Impact
Hand-washing wins this one. There are phosphate-free soaps available for dishwashing or handwashing, but the energy and materials used to make a dishwasher is considerable. Plus, dishwashers take more energy, sometimes use more water, and sometimes even take more time. So unless you are doing a huge load of dishes (or unless you work in a restaurant), then hand-washing is the way to go. So put on them yellow gloves, fill up a pot with hot, soapy water, and get ready for some good ol’ hand-washing.
October 19th, 2007 at 3:35 pm
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April 2nd, 2008 at 11:29 am
[...] Dishwashing vs. Handwashing [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I’ve pondered this same question, so I looked at other sites with scientific evidence. The dishwasher seems to win hands down.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
I don’t know if this will help anyone or if this actually helps as much as I think it does but here is what I do. I have a two basin sink and a tupperware tote that I use to do a big wash.
1. Dry whipe all the crud you can get off the dishes with a cloth towel.
2. using a refillable spray bottle with soap and water spray all the dishes and place them in the tub. this gets them soapy and wet for the next step.
3. Fill the first sink with warm water (not much) and sponge clean the dishes. you generally dont need to add soap and you really dont want to or it will take more water to rinse.
4. Fill the last sink with cold water. This saves energy and helps them dry quicker. This is the rinse sink. You can add some alcohol for sanitizing them if you want, but I don’t and havent had any problems. This step is simply to rinse. As this sink gets soap you can transfer the water to the other sink. I have also experimented with whiping of the soap first before rinsing. This keeps the soap out but also adds to your work.
5. I then use this sink water for the spray bottle for my next batch. I keep it in the fridge to keep any nasty things that may have gotten in from growing.
key points: there shouldnt be any food matter in most of the water since you have whiped it all off. This keeps the water cleaner. I imagine it only takes me a few gallons to do this process. I do this all the time with out any ill side effects.
May 14th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Also I clean off as much of the crud I can get off the towel in the dirty sink water left in the wash sink. That way I dont have to worry too much about the towel getting food or anything like that in my clothes washer.
July 21st, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Assuming that most people rinse dishes before putting them in the dishwasher, I have no doubt that handwashing (without keeping the water running, of course) uses less fossil fuel energy, and probably less water too. If the dishes were just used, they need not be soaked, and so a sponge with some soap and water works great. Filling up the sink is not necessary.
If one has a large load, the dishwasher might well be better, or at least more efficient.