Mother's going GREEN Day 38 - Washing Dishes

"Mom, I thought we aren't supposed to be using plastic" was my son's words as I served up apple juice in plastic cups today. The thing is I had no clean glassware. I have recently changed my dish washing habits. My routine was to turn on the dishwasher after breakfast. It would have lunch, dinner and breakfast dishes (sometimes it was full and sometimes not). But now my routine is no longer - I wait until I have a full load. I had to go out and purchase more cutlery as I kept running out of that now it looks as if a couple more kids glasses are in order.

The "Green" on Dish washing:

-- A study refered to in treehugger.com proves that the dishwasher uses only half the energy and one-sixth of the water, less soap too than hand washing. see more on this debate: hand vs. machine washing

-- Set your machine (if possible) on a low energy setting, low heat setting. My dishwasher has 3 options: Hi-Temp Wash (on or off); High-Temp Rinse (on or off); Heat Dry (on or off) - mine are all set to off thereby maximizing my energy efficiency.

-- Run your dishwasher only when you have a full load.

-- Use biodegradable soap with no chemicals

-- Don't use a commercial rinse agent (again full of chemicals) I use good old vinegar as my rinse agent. My dishes have never looked better.

Here's to the dishwasher - thank goodness it is a green choice, as I would not enjoy washing dishes by hand.