Today's output from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute’s state-of-the-art HEMMED (High-Energy Meta Mojo Elucidation Detector) machine is not sudsing up and leaves a bit of a film. But is it Clean?
One of the quandaries people face about Green anything has been the tradeoffs involved. In the 2% solution proposed on Morning Feature last week, NCrissieB discussed how cutting our energy consumption by 2% per year will compound enough savings to help us achieve our goal of getting everyone on earth using renewable energy by the end of this century.
That hinges on our willingness to forego the things we have become accustomed to. Notice I said "become accustomed to". This is not the same as "are a necessity".
An article in the NY Times suggests that one of the tradeoffs that people will need to make is the choice between phosporus in our cleaning products and things that do not appear to us to be clean.
"My dishes were dirtier than before they were washed," one wrote last week in the review section of the Web site for the Cascade line of dishwasher detergents. "It was horrible, and I won’t buy it again."
"This is the worst product ever made for use as a dishwashing detergent!" another consumer wrote.
Like every other major detergent for automatic dishwashers, Procter & Gamble’s Cascade line recently underwent a makeover. Responding to laws that went into effect in 17 states in July, the nation’s detergent makers reformulated their products to reduce what had been the crucial ingredient, phosphates, to just a trace.
While phosphates help prevent dishes from spotting in the wash cycle, they have long ended up in lakes and reservoirs, stimulating algae growth that deprives other plants and fish of oxygen.
Yet now, with the content reduced, many consumers are finding the new formulas as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the trade-offs that people often face today in a more environmentally conscious marketplace. From hybrid cars to solar panels, environmentally friendly alternatives can cost more. They can be less convenient, like toting cloth sacks or canteens rather than plastic bags or bottled water. And they can prove less effective, like some of the new cleaning products.
"Most Americans want to do things that are good for the environment, but not everyone wants to pay the price," said Elke U. Weber, director of the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions at Columbia University.
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What changed? The new rules regulate phosphorus which "in the form of phosphates suspends particles so they do not stick to dishes and softens water to allow suds to form". The new rules have resulted in the phosphate content in dishwasher detergent dropping from a high of 8.7 percent to 0.5 percent. It is good for the waterways and good for respiratory health but it makes dishes look "not clean". Phosphorus changes the surface tension (as a surfactant) to keep dishes from spotting.
In 2004, a study by the Lake Champlain Committee’s Environmental Service Corps Program determined that Lake Champlain was "an impaired water body due to excessively high concentrations of phosphorus and went on to make some recommendations:
Though large reductions have been made in end of pipe discharges from point sources, little effort has been invested in controlling phosphorus entering sewage treatment plants since the ban on phosphorus in laundry detergents in the mid-1970s. This action led to a 40% reduction in effluent phosphorus concentrations from waste water treatment facilities in Vermont (Van Benschoten and Smeltzer, 1981). Similar reductions have been achieved nationwide (Litke, 1999). If the phosphorus that needed to be removed from waste water were limited, potential savings might accrue in the economics and efficiency of treatment.
Phosphorus from automatic dishwasher detergents (ADDs) represents one example of controllable inputs to waste water treatment facilities. At the time the laundry detergent phosphorus ban was enacted household dishwashers were not common. Today one in every two households in New England has an automatic dishwasher (U.S. Department of Energy, 2001)
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Removing phosphates is all about the health of our bodies of freshwater and specifically limiting algae growth. As the research states, phosphates come from multiple sourcesand dishwasher soap is but a fraction of the total phosphates in our water but any reduction is just that: a reduction.
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The fractional improvements are important. The fractions add up and "doing our (fractional) part" becomes more than just a platitude because, really, every little bit counts (another platitude).
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The NY Times article goes on to discuss how people's perception of "clean" may need to change.
A woman who works to train others in house cleaning (and doing it in a environmentally friendly ways) suggests that the problem is one of how people have been consciously or unconsciously told what is clean:
"There’s the myth that to be clean it has to shine or smell or make a lot of bubbles," said Ivette Melendez, one of the trainers for the group, Women’s Action to Gain Economic Security. She says products like vinegar, baking soda or the newer cleansers work just as well as traditional items if applied in the proper mix and quantities.
Another side benefit from using the reduced phosphate cleaning products has been a drop in reported health issues for those using them:
Reports of burns, rashes, dizziness and scratchy throats among housekeeping employees have plummeted at North Central Bronx Hospital and Jacobi Medical Center since the staff switched to new cleaning products in 2004, said Peter Lucey, an associate executive director for support services at the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. The number of lost days linked to injuries from the products declined from 54 in 2004 to zero last year, he said.
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The question then becomes what are we willing to give up in order to make our earth less like a trash can. If "smells clean" as in "smells like the manufacturers have told us clean should smell" is the trade-off, it seems like embracing the use of the the new cleaners makes more sense. We can be trained to use the new products or to use old fashioned methods of cleaning.
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Our Earth will thank you. Which means you will be thanking yourself.
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Happy Thursday Friday to everyone and fist bumps!
The BPI Campus Progressive agenda:
- People matter more than profits.
- The earth is our home, not our trash can.
- We need good government for both #1 and #2.
Crossposted from Blogistan Polytechnic Institute (BPICampus.com)
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