Conservation 101: the Compete to Conserve Blog

photo credit: jsgphoto

I hate washing dishes. My husband hates washing dishes. And as soon as they are old enough, our two children will likely hate washing dishes too. Yet for years, I dutifully hand-washed our dishes, believing it to be more energy- and water-efficient.

Then I came across The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, which suggested that new energy-efficient dishwashers beat hand-washing dishes, well, hands down.

For me, this was a revelatory moment, akin to when Woody Allen’s character in Sleeper awakens in the future only to learn that chocolate is good for you and exercise bad! Still, I was skeptical, so I researched the debate myself. Here’s how you can make the dishwasher come out ahead:

Old Dishwashers Bad, New Dishwashers Good
If your dishwasher is more than 10 years old, you might be better off hand-washing. But according to Energy Star’s downloadable guide (PDF), a new Energy Star-rated dishwasher, can save you an average of $40 in utility costs and 4,945 gallons of water a year over doing dishes by hand.

Run Only Full Loads
Your dishwasher uses the same amount of water and energy whether it’s full or not, so maximize your resources.

Scrape before You Load
We run our dishwasher every other day. To avoid crusted-on food that requires (ugh!) rewashing, we wipe them rather than rinsing, which wastes water.

Skip the Heated Dry Cycle
The dishwasher water is hot enough to evaporate quickly—about 15 minutes in our house—and you’ll save on electricity usage and costs, too.

Use Eco-Friendly Detergent
Seventh Generation and Trader Joe’s, among others, offer automatic dishwasher detergent free of phosphates that can cause algae blooms in lakes that can suffocate acquatic plants and animals; free of chlorine bleach, which creates dangerous toxins that are linked to (scary!) cancer, birth defects, and developmental and reproductive disorders; and free of dyes and artificial fragrances that can irritate children and sensitive adults. While they might not save you energy, you’ll get bonus eco points for choosing them.

Even before Pacific Gas and Electric’s great CFL giveaway, not to mention the point-of-purchase rebate, I was stockpiling the replacement to Edison’s creation in my linen closet. But while it made perfect sense to me to retire the out-of-date and energy-sucking technology of the incandescent bulb, I wondered…Does it make sense to throw away perfectly good light bulbs? I mean, the ones in my lamps and light fixtures were still in working order. Doing their jobs steadily. And since incandescent bulbs aren’t recycled, I would just be adding to the great landfill in, uh, South San Francisco.

The CFL isn’t without controversy. Much hype has flooded the airwaves and Internet about the mercury and lead found in these bulbs. According to the EPA, “over 670 million mercury-containing bulbs are discarded each year,” ultimately to landfills or the incinerator with other municipal waste. While some argue that the amount is miniscule and harmless, others counter that any amount of mercury disposed in an improper way can find its way into the food chain—Tuna, and fish like it, won’t be the only items on the “watch the mercury” list. The EPA estimates that these discarded bulbs release approximately 2-4 tons of mercury per year.

In response to the mercury concern, many states have set up authorized facilities for recycling CFLs and other fluorescent lamps. California’s Universal Waste Law calls for recycling them within one year of collection. If broken, they must be treated as hazardous waste.

Arguments that incandescent bulbs also release mercury into the environment, albeit indirectly, have also been made. An article in US News and World Report notes that chances are at least 50 percent that incandescent bulbs in the US come from coal-powered plants, where mercury isn’t the only likely pollutant. But this was little consolation in my decision-making process.

The benefits of CFLs, saving energy and costs long-term, were clear. They are most certainly the “wave of the future,” given that the US has followed Australia and the EU in proposing a ban on incandescents in the near future. Not to mention that improvements have been made so CFLs can better mimic the warm light of tungsten, or the bright blue of daylight, rather than the sickly green light of traditional fluorescent.

But still, my existing bulbs worked just fine.

So, after swapping out bulbs in a few key, frequently-lit locations, the ongoing plan is to incorporate CFLs as the need arises—in other words, when the old bulbs die. This way I feel less wasteful, but I make the move I planned to make. I had every intention of adopting the bulbs immediately. It was just….

To help consumers make educated choices, the National Resources Defense Fund created a Shopper’s Guide to home tissue products. (This chart is replicated on many other sites.) Check it out, along with some stats on how changing old habits can help the planet, here: http://www.nrdc.org/land/forests/gtissue.asp

Greenpeace also has a tissue products guide with similar suggestions here: http://tissue.greenpeace.ca/