Top Tips to reduce your dishwashing Carbon footprint
The Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) conducted by P&G for its Fairy and Dreft brands reveal that most of the carbon footprint related to dishwashing, both by hand and in a machine, is caused by the way people use products in the home. This is because the processes associated with heating the water generate the majority of carbon emissions. On average, these processes cause 93% of hand dishwashing’s carbon footprint and 72% of the carbon footprint when using a machine. Consequently, a key intervention to reduce dishwashing’s carbon footprint is to change consumer habits when doing the dishes. These changes can be very simple. For example, hand dish washing with cooler water and selecting different machine cycles, such as switching from a normal or auto cycle to a short cycle, of 55 minutes or less, would reduce the carbon emissions of a person’s dish washing routine.However, for routines to change and habits to stick, consumers must feel they do not have to rely on compensating behaviours, including pre-rinsing dishes before going into the machine, or re-washing. These trade-offs may also come at a further environmental cost, as these actions lead to yet more emissions being associated with dishwashing. Efficacy of a product is therefore paramount to enabling new dish washing habits and avoiding compensating behaviours. The potential impact of supporting consumers in adopting new dish washing habits through product efficacy is significant. Especially as even if our energy grids do become progressively greener, product use at home is expected to remain a key contributor to a household’s dishwashing carbon footprint.