August 12th, 2009
Do One Thing: Hand Wash Plastic Cups.
This week’s Do One Thing comes courtesy of my friends who just visited and have small children. I never really thought about it before, but they do not wash their kids’ plastic cups in the dishwasher, as the heat could make the plastic leech toxic chemicals. I don’t have a dishwasher (well, not one that isn’t named David, anyway) so all my dishes are washed by hand, including the 3 small plastic juice cups I have had forever. But now I will always remember that plastic cups shouldn’t be washed in hot water in the dishwasher – especially the kids’ cups!
Related posts:
- I Hate Washing Dishes By Hand Because It Wastes So Much Water. What Can I Do?
- Do One Thing: Turn Off The Dish Dryer.
- Do One Thing: Buy A Recycled Plastic Toothbrush.
- Recycled Plastic Vs. Hybrid Corn/Plastic – Which One Makes A Better Trash Bag?
- Good Human Tip Of The Week – Wash In Cold Water.
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The water in the dishwasher is way hotter than that out of the tap, so yea, there would be.
Oh, snark! I love wordplay: “not one that isn”™t named David, anyway”. Thanks for bringing this up — I never thought about it before, and we have an electric dishwasher…named Bob…. Kidding!
Thanks for the reminder! We have all sorts of kids bottles in the house with a 2 yr old and a newborn. It’s easy to forget and throw everything in the dishwasher after a long day.
Unless you’re washing dishes by hand in cold water, is there any real benefit here? When I’m feeling frisky ad wash the old fashioned way, the water is turned up as hot as I can stand it.
Dishwashers have their own heating coils inside them.
I don’t know how you get hotter water in your dishwasher than in the tap. Most temp regulators are installed on the water heater itself. Hot water is the same all over the house, and if you have small children it should be set at 120 or lower to keep from burning them.
A good friend and I used to stress about this too, until my friend’s husband enlightened us. The water in the dishwasher gets just as hot as your tap water in the sink, so as long as you don’t use the ‘sanitize’ cycle on your dishwasher, the water is the same temp regardless of if it comes from the tap or the dishwasher.
This saved us a lot of stress – yes I prefer to hand-wash them (don’t like the residue on plastics from the dishwasher) but if they pile up for too long I don’t panic – I just throw them in the machine!