Washing up Liquid(dish soap): The Environmental Impact of Washing Dishes - an Earth911.com report

 

The Environmental Impact of Washing Dishes

ByGemma Alexander

Nov 1, 2021 cleaning, Cleaning Products

One of many ironies of modern life is that the products we use to make our homes clean contribute to pollution and environmental destruction. But no matter how negative the environmental impact of dish soap is, you can’t just avoid it the way you can other product categories.

Disposable dishes are no better for the environment than dish soap, and eating off of dirty dishes is a good way to get sick. You probably can’t easily replace plates with banana leaves; so how do you find the least dirty product to keep your dishes clean?

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Dishwasher or Hand-Wash Dishes?

It may be counterintuitive, but using a dishwasher is usually more efficient than hand-washing dishes. And picking an efficient washer will have a greater impact over its lifetime than any choice of cleanser. But everyone has some dishes that are not dishwasher safe, and sometimes you want to clean a particularly dirty dish without waiting until the dishwasher is full.

For times when you need to hand-wash dishes, Earth911 has recommended Honest Company Dish Soap in the past. AspenClean makes the only Environmental Working Group (EWG) Verified liquid dish soap, although several brands, including 9 Elements and Attitude earn an A rating.

Climate Change

The University of Colorado performed a life cycle analysis (LCA) that looked at several kinds of cleaner; the top three impacts of dishwashing detergents were all related to climate change. Although a likely culprit, transportation was not the largest contributor to climate impacts, coming in a distant third to product use and formulation.

Product use was the biggest factor, largely because of the electricity used to heat dishwaters. However, the study defines the climate impacts of product formulation less clearly. Labeling laws for cleaning products are  lax, but most dish soaps — for hand-washing and for dishwashers — are detergents rather than true soaps; these products are made from a petroleum base, just like the plastic containers they come in.

True Green Organics claims to make a petroleum-free dish cleaner for the dishwasher and hand-washing dishes. Although it does not appear to have any certifications, the ingredient list is short and simple. There are some USDA-certified organic dish soaps, but they can be hard to find. Look for GreenShield Organic automatic dish detergent or Orgaia Natura dish soap.

Toxicity

EPA’s Safer Choice label certifies that a product only uses ingredients from EPA’s Safer Chemicals List. The Environmental Working Group has a more stringent verification system. The Colorado LCA found that sodium lauryl sulfate had the greatest environmental impact. Note, however, that the study only included greener cleaning brands Method and Ecover, which may be free of many harmful chemicals that are commonly found in other detergents. The study was performed in 2015 before both of those companies were purchased by SC Johnson, which caused Britain’s Ethical Consumer to withdraw their recommendation of the brands.

Antibacterial detergents do not provide any added protection against viruses like COVID. The overuse of antibiotics is likely to contribute to the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. Their use in dishwashing releases antibiotics into the water cycle — wastewater treatment does not completely eliminate antibiotics — and increases the risk of accidental ingestion of antibiotics if dishes are not thoroughly rinsed. The FDA encourages consumers to avoid antibacterial soaps.

Packaging

Packaging type and its resulting waste are easy targets for consumer attention. But they form a relatively small portion of the product’s footprint.

The LCA referenced above focused on green dish soap brands whose product formulas presumably have less impact. Packaging would likely be an even smaller portion of the footprint of a standard dishwashing detergent. However, if you have a choice among nonpetroleum-based detergents, choose minimal and recyclable plastic-free packaging. Although pricey, Blueland’s fragrance-free dishwasher tablets are EWG-verified and come in refillable plastic-free containers. They package refills in compostable paper.

DIY

It is also possible to make your own dishwashing detergent and even to use it in the dishwasher. With a DIY approach, you know exactly what ingredients you are using, so you avoid any unfamiliar chemicals. It might seem like a hassle. But the challenges of tracking down an affordable, nontoxic, petroleum-free dishwashing detergent put the effort in perspective.

But don’t forget that how you wash is more important than what you wash with. Avoid pre-rinsing and deselect the “heated dry” setting to significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with dishwashers. Fill the sink to cut emissions by two-thirds instead of running the water while washing dishes by hand. Even if you don’t have the time and money for the lowest impact detergent, you can still cut your dishwashing footprint.

 I am lucky to have found a great health shop here called Camamil-la which I use a lot to buy my washing up liquid from. I just take an empty bottle (glass of course!) along and they refill it for me.  It's a lot cheaper and environmentally friendly too! I don't have a dishwasher, I tried one and frankly was not impressed at all.

The blog song for today is: " This Ole House" by Shakin Stevens

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New report reveals plastic polluters’ attempt to derail ambitious implementation of EU circular economy targets in Spain

by Estelle Eonnet

March 2, 2021 at 02:22:33 PM

◾ The investigation “More Trash, More Cash: who is really behind the plastic crisis in Spain” exposes the plastics industry’s continuous attempts to undermine progressive legislation to address plastic pollution in Spain.

◾ FMCGs and retailers are endorsing a voluntary initiative proposed by Ecoembes, Reciclos – a distraction tactic aimed at derailing the implementation of a Deposit Return System in Spain and hence undermining the country’s ability to meet EU targets.

◾ The report also calculates the cost of littering: Spanish taxpayers pay up to €744 million per year just to clean litter generated by single-use packaging. A significant part of this – up to 529 million EUR/year – is the cost of cleaning up beverage containers.

Spain is at a key decision moment on how it will address the plastics crisis. This year it is expected that the Waste Law and the Royal Containers Decree will be published through which the Spanish government intends to implement the EU waste legislation. As one of the biggest plastic users, Spain is also the second biggest polluter of the Mediterranean Sea and has failed to meet 2020 EU targets on recycling.

In this context, the investigation ‘More Trash, More Cash: who is really behind the plastic crisis in Spain‘ – published by the Dutch foundation Changing Markets with the support of the Spanish Alianza Residuo Cero and the Break Free From Plastic movement – reveals how the plastic polluters have successfully prevented any attempts to reform the Spanish waste management system for years and are now once again gearing up to derail meaningful implementation of new EU targets, adopted in the Single Use Plastics (SUP) Directive.

The latest attempt to derail real solutions to the plastic crisis is once again spearheaded by the producer responsibility organisation Ecoembes, which unites the biggest consumer goods companies, like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, and Danone, and the biggest supermarkets, like Mercadona, Alcampo, Carrefour and Lidl. The industry has rallied behind Reciclos, a voluntary return and reward system that the report defines as a false solution that has already been rejected in other countries. The Changing Markets investigation details significant shortcomings in this industry-supported project: it does not incentivise consumers to return more than 10 used containers a week, it excludes various groups (youth, people who do not own a smartphone, etc.), and it is potentially open to fraud. In addition, it is evident that Ecoembes does not have a plan for a significant roll-out of this system to achieve meaningful volumes of plastic bottles return, which makes it impossible for the industry to meet the separate collection target of 90%, as stipulated by EU SUP. In fact, the Balearic Islands’ and Valencia’s governments have already indicated that real solutions lie elsewhere. 

“Reciclos is the industry’s latest desperate attempt to delay real solutions in Spain such as the introduction of a Deposit Return System and reuse policies,” said Ximena Banegas, Campaigns Adviser from the Changing Markets Foundation. “Without a doubt, Reciclos is one of the worst examples of greenwashing, and the Spanish government must not fall for this trick. By betting on real prevention and reuse policies, the government should focus on real solutions that reduce the cost of plastic pollution, create new jobs and better opportunities for local businesses”.

This research shows that Ecoembes is at the forefront of defending the industry’s interests due to its obsolete business model. Since 90% of its income is generated by licencing Green Dot fees based on the weight of packaging producers put on the market, its business model was dubbed “more trash, more cash”, as the more single-use containers are placed in the market, the higher its income. 

The new report also reveals double standards of large beverage producers (Coca-Cola, Danone, Unilever and Nestlé), who on the one hand claim to support “a well-designed Deposit Return System” through their associations at the European level, but on the other hand, hide behind Ecoembes and its ability to lobby the Spanish government against progressive legislation and to promote false solutions, like Reciclos. The investigation reveals that Coca-Cola, Danone, Unilever, Nestlé, Lidl and Carrefour support the return of cans, bottles and Tetra-Paks to the store in some countries, while not expressing their support for the introduction of DRS in Spain.

“Unfortunately, the hypocrisy of some of the biggest plastic polluters, who use a series of tactics to derail progressive legislation, has no limit,” continued Banegas “While Coca-Cola, Danone, Nestlé and others now claim to be supporting deposit return systems in Europe, they are still allowing Ecoembes to continue with its dirty tricks in Spain. Given that new European targets oblige producers to introduce recycled content, meet separate collection targets and pay the costs of litter clean-ups, this lack of support for good legislation is really a short-sighted strategy that will cost them a lot of money in the long term.”

The report also features calculations from UK consultancy Eunomia Research and Consulting showing the true cost of cleaning packaging litter. Only cleaning-up packaging litter on streets and coastal areas costs Spanish municipalities and therefore taxpayers up to €744 million every year. And a crucial part of these costs, up to €529 million, is associated with beverage packaging, such as bottles, cans and Tetra-Paks, which could be reduced by up to 80% if the drinks were sold with a deposit. 

“DRS is crucial to enable reuse and achieve high performance collection and recycling. It’s already implemented in more than 40 jurisdictions around the world and has recently been announced in many EU countries, including Portugal,” says Delphine Lévi Alvarès, European Coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic movement. “The tide is shifting, and the Spanish government must take swift and ambitious measures to implement Deposit Return Systems and reuse measures to not lag behind.”

As you may have read in one of my earlier blogs about "Reciclos" how it really didn't work and how it was a bit strange that it only recognised brands like coca cola on the large 5ltr bottles of water and not on shops own brand! It looks like it was a big scam by ecoembes to make the spanish government and people think that they were actually doing something about improving the rate of recycling here.

I was a bit surprised to read in the report about Lidl because I was under the impression that they were on the ball with recycling here in Spain, it appears not to be the case.

The best supermarket for the amount of reduction of plastic waste and recycling has been found to be Eroski, we have two here in Ciutadella and they are doing better than the others.  

At the end of the day, it is down to "joe public" to do their bit also, so keep up the good work, buy less plastic and recycle.

The blog song for today is: "Give a little bit" by Supertramp

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