From Chad Hunter, Aspiration's Head of Sustainability
Washing dishes might seem like a chore, but it’s also a chance to make a positive difference for the planet. Every time we wash a plate, we have the opportunity to save water, conserve energy, and reduce our carbon footprint.
Let’s explore simple, practical tips to wash dishes sustainably, whether you prefer using a dishwasher or washing by hand, and discuss which has a smaller carbon footprint.
💡 Key Takeaways:
Water Heating Drives Carbon Emissions:
The primary source of carbon emissions from dishwashing comes from heating water. Whether you wash by hand or use a dishwasher, using energy-efficient practices can significantly reduce your carbon footprint.
Dishwasher vs. Hand-Washing:
The environmental impact of dishwashing varies depending on how it’s done. Running a fully loaded dishwasher on an energy-saving setting generally has a lower carbon footprint compared to typical hand-washing methods. But if you use hand-washing best-practices, it is the lowest carbon footprint way to wash dishes.
Small Changes Make a Big Difference:
Simple actions like using the two-basin method for hand-washing, air-drying dishes, or switching to climate-friendly detergents can greatly reduce the carbon footprint of your dishwashing routine.
🙌 How to take action today:
Use Dishwasher Best Practices:
If you use a dishwasher, just scrape food off the dishes, pack it efficiently and full, skip the heated dry, and use the normal cycle to reduce your carbon footprint.
Use Hand-Washing Best Practices:
If you like to hand-wash dishes, use a hot water basin for washing dishes, cold water basin for rinsing, and air dry them. This can reduce your hand-washing footprint by 70%!
How does washing dishes have a carbon footprint?
Most of the climate impact of washing dishes comes from heating the water (around 88% for dishwashing machines, nearly 100% for hand-washing1). This is usually done through a natural gas or electric water heater in your home.
There are smaller amounts of carbon emissions created when manufacturing the dishwasher or the detergents used in the dishwashing process.
The typical dishwasher uses up to 5 gallons of water per cycle, while hand-washing can use up to 23 gallons if the faucet is left on.1
The easiest way to reduce your carbon footprint of washing dishes is…
If you have an electric water heater, the best thing you can do is power your home with solar or wind electricity! This effectively drops your dishwashing carbon footprint to zero if you manually wash dishes, and reduces it by ~90% if you use a dishwasher.
Whether you have a natural gas-powered water heater or just want to be more mindful of your energy and water consumption, read on for tips and tricks!
Which is better for the climate: hand-washing or using a dishwasher?
It depends!
There are lots of ways to wash dishes: with the water running, with a water bath, using cold water rather than hot, and more. Depending on how you wash your dishes, the carbon footprint can be dramatically different.
Likewise, if you use a dishwasher, do you rinse the dishes before loading them? Do you fill it completely? Do you use the heated dry option? All these have an impact on the energy the dishwasher uses and the resulting carbon footprint.
Hand-washing tips to lower your carbon footprint
If you prefer to wash your dishes by hand, follow these best practices which help you reduce your carbon footprint and water usage:
Use the Two-Basin Method: If you wash dishes by hand, try the two-basin method. Fill one basin with hot soapy water for washing and another with cold clean water for rinsing.
Air Dry: After rinsing with cold water, let your dishes air dry. You don’t need to towel dry.
If you follow these steps, you can lower your carbon footprint by around 70% compared with typical hand-washing behaviors. Use these hand-washing best-practices and you’ll be using the lowest carbon footprint way to wash dishes.1
Dishwasher tips to lower your carbon footprint
If you like to use a dishwashing machine, follow these steps to minimize your carbon footprint:
Skip the Pre-Rinse: Pre-rinsing dishes before loading them into the dishwasher is often unnecessary. Modern dishwashers are designed to handle some food residue, so all you need to do is scrape food off a dish.1
Run Full Loads: It’s tempting to run the dishwasher with a half load when you’re out of clean dishes, but waiting until you have a full load is much more efficient. Running a full load maximizes the use of water and energy for each cycle.
Energy-Saving Settings: De-selecting the heated-dry function is a great way to reduce your dishwasher’s carbon footprint. Next is to just use the “normal” cycle which gets the dishes basically as clean.1
Using these tips, running the dishwasher generally has a lower carbon footprint compared to typical hand-washing methods. So if you don’t like the two-basin method described above, it's best to use a dishwasher to minimize your carbon footprint.
Want to be even more climate-friendly?
Your choice of dishwashing products is another area to reduce your carbon footprint.
Our Green Marketplace offers a few options of brands that provide eco-friendly dishwashing detergents and soaps, like Dropps and Blueland.
Check out the Green Marketplace here to learn more about earning up to 6% cash back for shopping at climate-friendly brands and get some climate-friendly products in your toolkit!
Final thoughts
Cleaning dishes is something we all do, and by making a few simple changes, we can turn this everyday task into meaningful climate action.
Whether you’re using a dishwasher or washing by hand, these tips will help you save water, conserve energy, and reduce your carbon footprint. Small changes like these may seem minor, but when we all make an effort, they can add up to big benefits for our planet.
Feedback welcome! 🙏
As always, I hope you found this insightful and actionable! To better provide you with useful content and insights on living sustainably, please share your feedback here on what you liked, didn't like, found useful, or want to understand better.
References
1. Porras, G.Y., Keoleian, G.A., Lewis, G.M., and Seeba, N. (2020). A guide to household manual and machine dishwashing through a life cycle perspective. Environ. Res. Commun. 2, 021004. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab716b.