Daily Herald opinion: Running your dishwasher every night is better for environment than hand-washing

This editorial is the consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board

The television spot opens with somber piano music and a slow zoom to a well-known real-life married couple in their kitchen.

“I'm Sarah Michelle Gellar,” she says, just as somberly.

“And I'm Freddie Prinze Jr., and we want to talk to you about something affecting millions of households — a topic we care passionately about.”

It's about this time you notice a popular brand of dishwasher pods on the counter behind them.

“Doing it every night,” Gellar says in extreme close-up.

Record scratch!

It's not until the 20-second mark of this cheeky 60-second spot that we learn they're not talking about what we think they are doing not once or twice a week but every night.

They're talking about running the dishwasher.

Jenny Whidden, our new climate reporter, wrote this week about how running your half-filled dishwasher is more environmentally friendly than washing by hand — and less work for you.

Nearly 20% of all dishwashing machines nationwide go unused, data from the Energy Information Administration shows.

This might sound as shocking as the opening of that TV ad, but it's true.

“It feels rare to have something that's saving you time and effort that's actually also the better thing for the environment,” Joe Vukovich, staff attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Whidden.

Modern dishwashers — those manufactured in the last decade, use no more than 5 gallons of water per cycle. That's about what you'd use in a little more than two minutes of hand washing.

For comparison, flushing the toilet takes between 1.3 and 1.6 gallons.

Dishwashers also reach temperatures up to 170 degrees, which not even Playtex Living Gloves would tolerate. And you don't need towels and sponges that can be breeding grounds for bacteria and mold.

Convinced yet? To maximize your savings, wash a full load, don't bother rinsing dishes beforehand (wasting water) and let them air dry.

Are you ready for another counterintuitive fact about your home appliances?

While it doesn't make much of a difference with a combo refrigerator/freezer, keeping your stand-alone freezer stuffed to the gills will save you money over a freezer that is half filled.

Why?

Because the cooling unit runs when air between your frozen goodies needs to be chilled. Less air volume, less chilling required.

So when you head to the grocery store to take advantage of that big sale on chicken, you might pick up some more dishwasher pods, too.

And do it every night.