Friday, March 21, 2008

dish doodie

it’s more a matter of habit than anything. we clear the table, rinse the dishes and plop them into the dishwasher. isn’t that akin to hosing ourselves down before we get into the shower? fact is, unless your dishwasher is ancient, rinsing dishes, glasses and utensils is unnecessary, not to mention wasteful. simply scrape off any particles with a wet sponge and load away!

next best: If you must rinse your dishes (either because you had a particularly messy meal or you run your washer infrequently), you can fill the sink with water once and give your dishes a quick dip, rather than running the faucet.

also, you know that sprayer do-hickey that tends to sit idly by while you rinse your dishes with water from the faucet? give it go! Like a showerhead, kitchen sprayers break the water stream into tiny droplets. according to the EPA, spray taps use 50 percent to 90 percent less water to rinse than when using the faucet.

the other thing to consider is that the hours following dinner tend to be high-demand, energy-usage times. you can cut energy costs by running the dishwasher later in the evening, perhaps before you turn in for the night. also, half-full dish loads are a huge waste of water and energy, as your dishwasher uses the same amount no matter how much is in it. so be sure to load it up before you hit “start” and don’t forget to put the dry setting to “energy-saver.” every penny counts!

2 comments:

Dawn D. Sokol said...

Interesting stuff!

I have some questions regarding plastic bottles: how much oil does it take to make plastic bottles...and what's behind this sudden concern for the plastic being bad for you?

Kristen McCarthy said...

good questions! let me do a little research :)