NPR noted that dishwasher users could rinse dishes before loading up the dishwasher or running the applier twice. None of us can calculate an accurate cost benefit analysis whether its better to society if we pre-wash our dishes or use phosphate- laden detergents. Consumer Reports commenters suggest using white vinigar to improve on the phosphateless detergents. I, for one, say lets make our own.
--Laura Koch
I agree with the fact that it is difficult to accurately determine which is more harmful to the environment-using phosphate in detergents or wasting more water and electricity due to consumers having to wash the dishes more thoroughly to make up for the new, phosphate-free detergents. Maybe this ban on phosphate in detergents is actually hurting the environment more than it is helping? Also, I wonder if the government considered how consumers might react to this news by going out and purchasing their own phosphate and mixing it in with dishwashing detergent; these consumers are likely estimating how much phosphate they mix with the detergents--Now that does not sound very safe to me.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I think your idea of just making our own detergent is good, just not very practical for the everday consumer. I just don't see very many people taking the time to make their own detergent when they could just go to Wal-Mart or wherever and buy one, even if it doesn't have phosphate in it. I guess what I'm saying is that consumers nowadays, on average, are way to lazy to put in the extra effort to get the phosphate. Which boils down to, on average do people really even care that much if their detergent does not have phosphate? Or is it just the people that are anal about having extremely clean dishes? I also agree with Kaitlin, I think that it doesn't sound very safe for consumers to be estimating how much phosphate they should put into their detergent.
ReplyDeleteWe got used to phosphate-free detergent years ago. And we will get used to this. I imagine that dishwashers will be re-engineered to be more efficient given the new regulations.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people will have to do a little bit of both for a while until a solution is found. It seems that a little bit of pollution and a little bit of extra water usage to rinse will be needed. It just seems like dish detergent will follow the same path that laundry detergent did as said during class. The rinsing, rewashing or hand washing altogether is a short term fix until a detergent can clean but without the negative effects of phosphates. Most people are too lazy to do anything like brewing their own concoction of detergent, as well as scared of adding too much of a substance that could prove harmful. Both sides need to be patient until a solution is found, even though the environmentalists have the sharper end of the knife. It really does not take more effort to manually clean dishes, but slowly destroying fish and habitats could be costly in the long term.
ReplyDeletePhosphates are an extremely common industrial substance. They are used in aluminum, fabrics, crop fertilizers, cement production, drinking water, a multitude of food products including lunch meat, vitamins, baking soda, cereal, canned seafood, potato chips, colas and cheese. Phosphates are obviously detrimental to the environment, but they are found in many more everyday items than simply detergents. Obviously banning phosphates in all of these products could have serious manufacturing implications, but will the banning of phosphates in dish detergent be enough to make a positive environmental impact?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.phosphatesfacts.org/uses_apps.asp
The fact that the government has banned certain laundry detergents makes me wonder what kind of legislation we could see in the future. An article I read a few months back said that the production of meat is more harmful to the environment than the CO2 emissions from cars and airplanes combined. Will our intake of meat be limited one day? Will we all be forced to become vegetarians? Seems a bit drastic but the concept is the same. People are being forced to substitute laundry detergents containing phosphates with detergents not containing them. Could this, one day, be the equivalent of forcing people to substitute their Big Mac with a similar tasting, better for the environment, veggie burger?
ReplyDeleteScientists are constantly expirementing with new compounds to form more efficient solutions. A quick google search didn't yield any concrete answers to how much water was used for a standard pre-rinsing phase, but I do believe that it's only a temporary fix to the problem. Detergent companies will be looking for a fix to the issue to gain market share, it's hopefully just a short matter of time until they find something that works.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it will be a short time before we see innovation in either the dish washer technology or the dish washing soap. A lot of times the regulation (in the form of fines/taxes/bans etc) are used as tools to provide incentives to businesses and industries to spend more money on R&D - which usually does lead to more efficient production - reduced costs and increased profits.
ReplyDeleteWhile the ban on phosphates may lead to a lot of different reactions as suggested in the posts above, my main concern was why this piece of regulation was not publicized enough? Why were the people (consumers/voters etc) not informed adequately - why the information asymmetry?
I am not certain the degree that this phosphate chemical is damaging our atmosphere, but I believe society should bare the cost of washing their dishes by hand (hopefully sooner than later because things can get difficult once things get crusty).
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it will not be long until innovators engineer a more effective detergent similar to the laundrey cycle encountered in the past