GreenBrig

If it is water that you want to save, then dishwasher is more green than hand washing. Research shows that an energy star dishwasher uses only 4 gallons of water, where as hand washing uses about 16 gallons of water. Now compare that to a non-energy star dishwasher, it still only uses about 6 gallons of water. But don’t be alarmed when you open you electricity bill and find how much your bill is. It is definitely more cheaper to hand wash than use the dishwasher. Typically you can finish hand washing the dishes in about 15 minutes, but the same load can take up to 2 hours in a dishwasher.

In an article from Treehugger there was some research done and here are the facts:

Things that need to be taken into consideration while comparing are – Water use, Energy use and Carbon foot print.

Dishwasher vs Hand washing

Using the Dishwasher uses only 4 to 6 gallons of water depending if it’s an energy star or non energy star appliance. Second the energy used to heat the water. Since it only uses 4 to 6 gallons of water, the energy required to heat is much less than hand washing. Finally the carbon foot print is much less when using the dishwasher, since heating 6 gallons of water emits much less CO2 into the atmosphere than hand washing, which uses 16 gallons of water.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, if you can wash the same amount of dishes with only 6 gallons of water, then that would be the most greenest choice, but in realty that is not possible. Therefore, hands-down using the dishwasher is the most greenest way to wash dishes.

Bissell Vacuum Cleaners are becoming a little bit more greener nowadays by adding more sustainable designs to their products. The biggest product that has gone green is the “Little Green” vacuum cleaner that is made of 50% post consumer recycled plastics. Others include the “Steam Mop” which cleans without any chemicals. This is great, since harsh chemicals can be toxic in a closed environment for children and pets. A lot of their liquid cleaners and formula have the EPA Design for the Environment Certification.

Bissell Sustainable Design Features:

• Designed the cleaners to use 95% less PVC in their products.
• Products are manufactured with polypropylene, which is more easily recycled.
• Both the brush block and solution tanks is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic.
• Packaging of the product is improved by eliminating Styrofoam and using up to 75% recycled corrugate materials for the carton and inner packaging.
• The cleaning liquid that is used in the Little Green contain no heavy metals, optical brighteners, phosphates or dyes.
• Use a “Closed Loop Manufacturing” process where the Bissell parts are recycled and made into raw materials, which is then used to manufacture new Bissell components.

You can purchase one of their products from their main Bissell websites or through Amazon.com