First, they came for our toilets, and we had to put up with it. Next, they came for our light bulbs, and we were told to suck it up. Now, we're not allowed to have clean dishes, either:
But the crisis persisted. And, as the days passed, it became clear that the matter was beyond poor placement. Bits of spaghetti — stiff and stubborn — stuck like stalactites to bowls. The walls and doors of the machine emerged waxy and coated from each wash, in contrast to the gleaming surfaces of the past. Between the tines of forks, ugly bits of hardened remains resembled something you'd see on NCIS — if not quite repellent, then certainly unwelcome in what should have been a disinfected, pristine dishwasher.
I switched brands of dishwashing liquid. No change. Topped off the rinse-aid reservoir. No change. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that the thought of buying a new machine flitted through my consciousness. Sparkling, squeaky-clean dishes are a necessary part of our quality of life. But our dishwasher is only three years old.
And then I learned that I don't have a personal problem. I have a political problem. Jonathan V. Last of The Weekly Standard explains that, all across the nation, innocent Americans are grappling with the identical scourge. Our dishwashers are fine. The reason our dishes are dirty is that the environmentalists have succeeded in banning phosphates from dishwashing soap.
Until recently, dishwashing soap contained about 8 percent elemental phosphorus. That's the magic element that “strips food and grease off dirty dishes and breaks down calcium-based stains.” It also prevents food from reattaching to the dishes. Or at least it used to. As of July 2010, the nation's detergent manufacturers, bowing to laws regulating phosphorus in 17 states, reconfigured the formula for all dishwashing soap to contain less than 0.5 percent phosphorus. It's taken till now for most of us to notice, as we used up the old (wonderful) soap and unwittingly made the switch.
We're being frog-marched back to medieval times, one environmental "crisis" at a time. Hey, relax. After you replace those evil incandescents with CFL bulbs, you won't even be able to tell the dishes are dirty.
Comments
That's a great article and explanation in the Weekly Standard link.
This is the entity, the system, the people (politicians & then bureaucrats) that will eventually end up handling and discharging your health care.
Phosphate is a great anti-redeposition agent. It's what made Tide the "washday miracle" that ended "tattletale gray." It's not very helpful when it comes to preventing that greasy film, though. For that, you need hotter water - and in some communities, plumbers are legally required to set your water heater to a relatively low temperature. It may or may not be legal for you to unfasten the cover and adjust the thermostat yourself.
Scrape your dishes very well (or have your dog tongue them clean) and turn up your water heater and things will work better. Some models of dishwasher are better than others at dealing with this, and all the companies will be redesigning to work well with low phosphate detergent.
And what does banning phosphate do? Very little. It's nitrogen, not phosphorus, that's causing the environmental impact.
And what are you doing about your toilet? Toilet bowl stains aren't "organic matter" - they're minerals from the water. The Bush administration took Sani-Flush and Crystal Vanish off the market. Sodium bisulfite was highly effective, but now you have to haunt institutional maintenance products dealers to find acid-based liquid toilet bowl cleaners. It's highly expensive, highly ineffective, and you end up using so much that it's much worse for the environment.