ROOM BY ROOM

There are two things that constantly plague me in my quest to live sustainably. Deodorant. And my dishwasher.

You see, I have a personal vendetta against plastic and over the last few years have worked diligently to reduce the amount I consume.  Yet try as I may, I continue to fail when it comes to deodorant and my dishwasher.

I’ve all but given up on deodorant, but gosh darn it, there has to be a plastic-free dishwasher solution out there!

Isn’t there?

Back when I first started down this sustainable journey, I made the switch from individually plastic-wrapped Electrasol tabs to a plastic tub of BioKleen Automatic Dish Powder.  From what I remember the stuff worked great.  But, it was housed in plastic that my municipality doesn’t accept for recycling – and I would rather reduce than recycle - and it came with a plastic scoop.  Not good enough.  So I switched to Seventh Generation Auto Dish Powder.  It came in a cardboard box with a metal spout.  No plastic.  Great.  But, it sucked.  I hated it. My dishes were cloudy and not at all clean.

Back to plastic I went.

In the form of Earth Friendly Products Wave Auto Dish Gel.  I LOVE this stuff!  It works like a dream, but alas, it is in plastic.  At least it is a plastic that my municipality will accept for recycling.  Still, it seemed this bit of plastic was unnecessary in my life.  Unable to find a suitable plastic-free solution on the market I decided to make my own.

This is a relatively simple process.  You just combine equal parts borax and baking soda.  Both of which come in a cardboard box.  Mix it up and store in a glass container.  When it comes time to wash, add 2 tablespoons to your dishwasher’s compartment and you’re good to go.

And so it was… for a while.

Then we started noticing bits of food stuck all over the dishes.  Especially in the drinking glasses.  It was gross.  Almost as if they had been rolled in sand.  It got so bad, we started hand washing the dishes after they had already been washed in the dishwasher.  They were coming out dirtier than when they had gone in!

Back to plastic I went.

But this time the problem persisted.  Eventually we stopped using the dishwasher altogether.  Okay, that’s not exactly true.  We were still using it as a giant drying rack after hand washing everything.  It sucked.  Almost as much as that Seventh Generation dishwasher powder.

Much internet research determined the problem was the dishwasher itself.  Food particles were clogging up the filter and being redistributed all over the dishes.  Of course there was no way to access said filter to clean it.  We had a very low end dishwasher that came with the house when we bought it.  It took forever, sometimes had to be run twice and never really worked well from the start.  Very inefficient.

So we purchased a new high efficiency model with stainless steel tub and easily accessible filter hoping all would be solved.

Being the eternal optimist that I am, I tried once again to go plastic free.  This time with Planet Automatic Dishwasher Detergent.  Like Seventh Generation, it came in a cardboard box with a metal spout.  Unlike Seventh Gen, it actually worked.  At first.

I didn’t even make it half way through the box before all hell broke loose.  This had to be the worst one yet.  Everything was cloudy.  REALLY cloudy.  A white film blanketed the dishes.  You could feel it.  The glasses were so bad they looked like they still had milk in them!  Nasty.  Mister resorted to vigorous steel wool scrubbings in attempt to remove the haze.  It only helped a little.  I was sure the glass had been etched and my dishes were ruined.

In disgust and defeat I returned to plastic.

I am currently a third of the way into a bottle of, get this, Seventh Generation Automatic Dishwasher Gel.  I know, I know.  After expressing my disdain for Seventh Gen. the first time around, why would I go there again?  Because I’m desperate, damnit.

Surprisingly, it seems to be working.  It has successfully removed the milky haze and film from all my dishes.  They are clean.  Really clean.  With no steel wool needed.  I’m apprehensive to give it a glowing review though.  All of the products started out great – almost – but a few weeks in, things turned ugly.  I’m hoping that’s not this case with this one.

Even so, it is still in plastic.

So here’s where I’m at folks.  Liquid dishwasher detergent seems to work better in my situation.  Liquid detergent only comes in plastic.  What’s a green girl to do?

Tagged as: DISHWASHER, GREEN YOUR: KITCHEN {CLEANING}, PLASTIC {THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE}, PRODUCT REVIEWS: CLEANING

{ 22 comments }