Phosphates in your dishwasher detergent

Phosphates in automatic dishwasher detergent have been banned in Spokane, WA. Some devotees are smuggling their beloved phosphates across state lines in spite of the ban. In your face, Spokane River. The fact that these phosphates end up in the river, and suffocate life there, does pale in comparison to the fact that 20 seconds pre-rinsing a soup pot may be spared. A quote from a Season 1 episode of 30 Rock keeps replaying in my head, ‘It’s after 6. What am I, a farmer?‘

How dare the city of Spokane look out for its families and environment, by allowing only phosphate-free detergents? Not everyone will be fooled by this people safe, environmentally sound gimmick. These consumers are venturing across their state line into Idaho to purchase algae promoting, [seemingly] more effortless phosphate-rich dishwasher detergents. The irony here isn’t severely subtle. You own a machine that will wash your dishes for you. An automatic dishwasher is pretty effortless. The detergent with phosphates seemed to save you a 20 second pre-rinse of the soup pot, so you’ll venture to another state in order to purchase a product that might help save you effort and time.

Rumor has it that by mid-2010, phosphate-free only is going statewide in Washington. I hope nationwide shortly thereafter. For those that fear filling a detergent compartment, there’s always the option to stock up now, like that lifetime supply of Forever postage stamps in your junk drawer. Though the whole phosphate deal wipes out a lake forever… decision time: convenience amplified or your health and a saved lake, including all of the life in it?

Before we converted to phosphate-free, our dishwasher used to wash with “action packs” that we’d drop inside. This was beyond convenient, the half-liquid, half-powder detergent was inside of a clear wrap, and the whole thing was just dropped inside. We had almost trained our wheaten terrier to earn his keep post dinner: drop a “pack” inside, close the door, press start, and later unload mostly clean dishes. But our dishwasher now washes with phosphate-free Seventh Generation powder detergent. It hasn’t seemed to mind the switch. Now we pour SG powder inside, close the door, press start, and still unload mostly clean dishes, just as before. We still use a rinse aid, as recommended on the detergent box, and as we did before with our action packs. There’s still the occasional dish needing an extra rinse, just like there was after using our “action packs”. The dishes and post-wash steam are free of toxins and that’s good enough for me.

Our current brand

Using an automatic dishwasher is a vast improvement in our house. Moving in, we had a single basin farmer’s sink for dishes. We had that and our hands. I was home for 12 hour stretches, at most during the week, while teaching. Hand-washing home lunch containers on top of dinner and breakfast dishes took considerably longer than pouring detergent into and unloading and automatic dishwasher. Especially while I was pregnant and eating, at the very least, excessively and frequently. I still get giddy everytime I get to load and start our machine.

Name:
Phosphates

What they are and what they do
Phosphates are salts which are used as cleaning aids and as minerals in fertilizers. These cleaning aids and fertilizers drain into lakes and rivers. Phosphates may be linked to lung cancer and are hazardous for water supplies. They promote quick algae growth, which eventually kills all life in the body of water, and turns lakes and rivers into dry land.

What they’re typically in
Dishwasher detergents, laundry detergents, fertilizers

Alternatives brands (phosphate-free):
Seventh Generation
Trader Joe’s
A list of phosphate-free dishwasher detergents

As always, try, try again if you’re not impressed with one brand.

And for our wheaten terrier, he’s off the hook for running the dishwasher and is currently in training to relocate our lawn sprinkler every now and then.

Dishwasher in training, pre eco-friendly powder