It seems like most everyone we know has a dishwasher, supposedly the optimal way to get your dishes their cleanest and save water. We don't have one, so we wanted to find out what tweaks we could make to our dishwashng routine to conserve water...
- Start with two basins: if you don't have a two basin sink, fill a large pot with soapy water.
- Use an eco-friendly dishwashing detergent: you probably only need a capful or two.
- Scrape your dishes well: empty the scrapings into the trash or, even better, a Bokashi composter (which allows you to toss in everything willy-nilly, including meat scraps and salad dressings and dairy).
- Let the well-scraped dishes soak in the soapy water.
- Plug your sink: ideally, place a second basin in your sink.
- Rinse the soapy dishes under a thin stream of cold running water no wider than your thumb.
- Use the greywater to water your plants or toss it in the toilet bowl right after you've flushed. It'll bring the water levels in the toilet up so that it doesn't have to fill with clean water.
And, to make doing this chore more fun, check out this post.
[image: from Corey Leopold's Flickr with a Creative Commons License]
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Comments (11)
If you have only one basin (and no garbage disposal):
Start with soap in the empty, plugged basin. Turn on a thin stream of water, and start washing glassware with it. When there's an inch or two of water, start washing plates and silverware in it, turning off the water as you scrub, turning the stream on only to rinse. As the sink slowly fills, wash the biggest stuff, saving the most greasy for last.
Unless I had a HUGE mass of dirty dishes, I never used more than 3/4 of the sink full this way, and the stream of rinse water keeps the washing water hot. If you let it settle and cool, the grey water can be used for plant watering.
Putting the greywater in the toilet bowl won't save any water. The toilet water runs until the tank at the back gets filled. Try it yourself by flushing and then filling up the bowl with a bucket. The water won't stop running any faster. As for putting the water in the tank at the back of the toilet: I'd be worried about how the soap and grit would mess with the rubber flapper which stops the water flowing into your tank.
um, should you really be washing your plants with soapy water? the "greywater" you mention is the rinsed dishes water, correct?
watering your plants. oops.
maybe I'm mis-judging how much water I use, but my method is:
-rinse off plates
-get sponge nice and soapy (dawn direct foam does a good job with only one pump, even if it's not the most eco friendly)
-clean all my plates with the sponge while the water is off
-rinse off the soap, and that's it!
in my mind, this seems better than filling two entire basins of water.
^I do the same thing. It seems wasteful to fill the sink and run water constantly.
A gallon or two of water in a basin with about a tablespoon of vinegar does a good job of rinsing dishes.
Regarding using the rinse water for plants, if you have plants infested with insects spraying slightly soapy water will help get rid of the bugs safely. When you use grey water to flush the toilet pour the water in the bowl not the tank. Since I do not have a shower, I don't drain the tub until the next time I bathe so I can use the water elsewhere, like in the toilet.
I'm not sold. An efficient, fairly new dishwasher, fully loaded, uses just under six gallons of water. And they're getting better each year.
I'm looking at my dishwasher racks and I think it would take more than six gallons to wash and rinse all those dishes.
In preparation for moving to a new house that does not have a dishwasher I quit using my current dishwasher 2 weeks ago- and love it! I feel like the dishes come out cleaner (no more hard water stains!) and it takes less time to wash each meal's dishes through the day than all at once. I'm glad to see there's ecological benefits as well as time/cleanliness.
In my opinion I do the dishes because is the only way to be relax, and I use this type of therapy to rest my brain from daily challenges. i enjoy doing dishes by hand. and besides i can't cook in my kitchen if my dishes are dirty. I dont have a dishwasher and i dont missed. when i had it didn't used.