May 30, 2023 • 45 mins
Join Tiffany and Kat as they spiral into a rabbit hole filled with vegetable glycerin and citric acid and salt -- and charts tracking it all -- while Tiffany tries her hand at homemade dishwasher detergent. Spoiler alert: It doesn't go well.
But fear not! They offer an easy (and totally free) trick you can do today with your dishes that will be way more impactful than charting your way to madness. (Oh, and learn why you might want to steer away from pods - yikes). Get all the deets in this episode of your favorite green living podcast.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Some links below are paid links.
What We Bought
- Dirty Labs Bio Enzyme Dishwasher Detergent
What We Mentioned
- The Spruce’s DIY detergent recipe
- Nancy Birtwhistle's recipe in Clean & Green: 101 Hints and Tips for a More Eco-Friendly Home
- Finish Quantum Powerball
- Aspen Clean detergent
- Rosey by Thrive Market Unscented Powder
- Grab Green detergent
Source Links
- NYTimes on phosphates
- Agricultural Policy Review from Iowa State University on phosphates
- CompoundChem.com
- Center for Biological Diversity
- Aspen Clean
- Looked up the ingredients for Finish Quantum Powerball
- Environmental Working Group for product ratings
- AttainableHome.com
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on pods
- National Library of Medicine
- Potential damage to gut health
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Email us with questions: greeningupmyact@gmail.com
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
I had to make you know tomatosoup does not come off. hardens
into this latest permanent isa glue actually. Yeah,
it's yeah I use itthey can most cultures, houses
together with it hi Tiffany.
Hi, cat.
(00:22):
How are you doing this evening?
I'm doing pretty well, asidefrom dealing with a daughter who
pooped after I put her down tosleep, but
better out then I always sayyou always say that about Oh,
yeah. That's true, though. It'strue. How are you?
(00:45):
Oh, good. Just summertime andstarted here. It's my first so
time for the heatwave. actuallybeen really nice. Okay. It
was like, is it actually hot?
It's supposed to get to the 90sthis week, but it's been raining
on the weekends, which is nicefor us just so dry last year
that hopefully none of ourtomatoes die this year. But
(01:06):
yeah, Ihad that problem. Last year to
all of my raspberries. I wasjust too lazy to water them. And
the year before I didn't need toso I just didn't. And then we go
for raspberries the wholeseason. It was sad.
Yeah. My grandfather used to sayin Texas. Well, if it doesn't
rain, I don't have a garden. Soah, yeah, he wouldn't water
things be in pretty good crops.
And yeah,I mean, yeah, I was gonna say I
(01:27):
feel like, that's probably thesmart way to go about it. Water
conservation wise.
Yeah. Still, it's nice to have.
Yeah. You know, like, when youplant things, it's hard to watch
them die. And totally,yes, I actually just planted a
whole pollinator garden in myfront yard. And I'm really
excited. Actually, my friendJulia came and helped me and I
(01:48):
was like, thank God, becausethis is a lot of work. Gardening
is hard.
It is, especially as you'relearning, you know, like, we're,
we're playing scope or there'syou interact with each other.
Which ones like the same kind ofsoil?
Yeah, exactly. And I'm reallyjust guessing and using
resources. My state actuallyMaryland has really good charts
and stuff, but that's good. I'mguessing but I'm like trying to
(02:11):
go native trying to gopollinator friendly. So we'll
see how it works out.
I'm trying to I tried to dopollinator friendly and anti
mosquitomix those did not know that was
even a thing.
Any items, and I just plantedsome of those. That's good.
There's a few others that Whoa,the mosquitoes don't like so
(02:31):
I had no idea. Yeah, I plantedsome from seeds, just because I
had the seeds. I was like, oh,cool, man. It'll dry it. And
there's like seven growing, sothat's
nice. Yeah, geraniums apparentlyreally like acidic soil.
Oh, this is not I just put themin a pot. So.
Oh, well. Oh, well. That's whatI mean. You could bring them in
when it's cold to them, though.
Oh, yeah.
Did they last?
(02:52):
I have never had a geraniumlast. Okay. I was gonna say I
thinktheir annual right. Yeah. Which
means they die. I can'tremember. Yeah, they die every
year if they're annual. Yeah,that makes sense. Yeah. So I can
update folks on my pollinatorgarden. But
yeah, we want pictures when itstarts blooming. Yeah, they're
far from that. Oh, man thissummer. Yeah, yeah. Next season.
Yeah, totally. Alright, soyou want to get into it? Yeah.
(03:14):
Okay. Sowe should say, Welcome to
greening up my rightwho are we? What are we doing
here? What are we doing here?
Tell me.
We are rating basically GreenLiving Products this season for
how housecleaning based on theireffectiveness, their cost
(03:37):
effectiveness, and their actualsustainability qualities on a
scale of one to five granolasfive being the crunchiest,
therefore the best and one beingthe soggy is therefore the
worst.
Yeah, nobody wants soggygranola, grow No, or
DIY green cleaning products thatare actually worse for you. Or
don't work or worse for theenvironment.
(03:57):
Yeah, because a lot of greenmarketing stuff is like, Oh,
we're eco friendly, butactually, it's just a word that
we call green hooey. Because itis it means absolutely nothing,
and nobody's really regulatingit. So companies can kind of get
away with saying a lot of stuff.
That doesn't actually meananything. So yeah, so he was
speaking of DIY, that doesn'tactually work.
(04:23):
Well, why not burythe lead? No, I'm not. It's I'm
being very upfront with this DIYdishwasher detergent. So I had a
wild ride with this one becauseI like really wanted it to work
and full disclosure, we're rerecording this episode, because
last week, I think I was likegetting sick or something, but
it just, I think I was also sofrustrated that it wasn't
(04:45):
working, that I like didn't knowhow to process everything that I
was learning and all theresearch I was finding and my
results and I was just like WHATTHE HELL YEAH. For sure, so
annoyed. So I was like, Can werecord I can do it so much
better. Yeah. And luckily I getto cat was okay. And I think
(05:06):
actually a lot of this is goingto be new because I did really
rework these notes. So it's notlike you're just gonna have to
sit here and listen to me saythe same shit over and over.
It's episode 11 point2.0 11.1. Yes. So it was funny
because like, I feel like mostpeople think DIY dishwasher
detergent is something that theycan't do. Like there's going to
(05:28):
be dishwasher police who show upor like
the Maytag man. Yeah. You cannothave tears like you shall not
passstraight to jail with you. And
but you know, I was like, I'mhaving so much trouble with my
dishwasher.
Let us know, how do you feelabout your dishwasher?
(05:49):
Well, basically, I had my disheswere extremely cloudy. So they
looked dirty. It was like, Imight as well not have even
washed them. I had to basicallytake vinegar of vinegar water
rinse and wash them out againevery time and like this is not
to be clear. I did not ever dothat unless we had guest
speakers something Yeah. But ifI really wanted them to not look
(06:11):
like garbage, then that's what Iwould have to do. And everything
tasted not everything. But a lotof the plastics have tasted like
soap. So like my daughter's shewould have dry, nothing wet,
just dry goldfish in her littleplastic cup thingy. And it would
taste like soap within a coupleof hours. I was like, This is
(06:31):
disgusting. I feel bad for her.
She's gonna grow up thinkinglike, oh, food tastes like soap.
The most delicious cracker onthe planet taste like soap. It's
terrible.
Exactly. So I was just having Ireally wanted this to work. I
even tried two different recipesthinking like, surely for a love
of God, something is going towork. I made a chart. And this
was new. I made a chart tryingto track all of the complicated
(06:55):
variations that I was trying inmy dishwasher. And all the
ingredients I was using and allthe results. And then finally, a
couple days ago, I was like,Screw it like, this is not, this
is not something that anybodyelse in the world is ever going
to do. So why am I doing this?
So for science?
(07:16):
Well, yeah, but I gave up on mytest. Because I was so annoyed.
Yeah, so cut to the chase, youprobably don't want to waste
your time, like I did makingyour own dishwasher detergent.
And I'll get into why next. ButI did want to say that I found
one insanely easy thing that youcan do without buying anything
(07:36):
starting today. You mightalready do this, I didn't, that
will probably be a lot moreimpactful. And this is whether
you wash your dishes by hand orin the dishwasher. And it's
gonna be more impactful thanmaking your own dishwasher
detergent. So I'll share thatwith you toward the end. Stay
tuned, stay tuned. First, I needto share my sources real quick.
(07:58):
Okay, so I use the New YorkTimes, a little bit about
phosphates. We'll talk a littlebit about phosphates and
agricultural policy review fromIowa State University also talks
about phosphates. I use compoundchem.com. Just for a What the
heck is the chemistry behinddishwasher detergent? It's
(08:18):
amazing that these things exist.
Yeah, I'm the Center forBiological Diversity talks about
phosphate mining. I use Aspenclean, it's a brand. I use their
website. I also looked up theingredients for finish quantum
Powerball, which who? Spoileralert, that's the dishwashing
(08:39):
detergent that I use. I useEnvironmental Working Group
which we talked about all thetime, and they rate products
from A to F based on theirtoxicity. attainable. home.com
talks about dishwasher podswhich is going to be
interesting. This is one of themost interesting parts is the
(09:00):
dishwasher pods US NationalLibrary of Medicine I used. What
was it a University of Zurich,they talked about the
ingredients in most dishwasherdetergents like the pre made
ones, clean and green 101 tipsfor a more eco friendly home is
by the book by our girl, Nancybirtwhistle. who we love.
(09:22):
She's a hard heart.
She had one of the DIY recipes.
The book is really good.
Unfortunately, this recipe didnot work out for me, but that's
okay. Can't be perfect. Thespruce had the other DIY recipe.
And a couple final things. Ilooked at the University of
Michigan had an article aboutfighting climate change at the
(09:44):
sink.
Wow. Yeah. Found that.
Incidentally, our other podcastname was going to be oh man.
That's a cool one. I use treehugger they talked about
dishwasher this dishwashingversion. Oh my god. dishwasher
inversion, handwashing. And thenthe New York Times also had this
(10:05):
really good article about how tomake your dishwasher work
better. And I was like, PleaseGod, tell me because I'm so done
with this. Alright, so those aremy sources. That's what I used.
So, let's get into dishwasherdetergent and why you should
just save yourself the time andthe headache of making your own
unless you're a glutton forpunishment. The basic reason is
(10:27):
no matter how well a DIY recipeworks for one person, it
probably won't work for the nextperson. The New York Times wire
cutter article that I mentionedthat was so helpful, proved my
point. Because wire cutter is awebsite that rates tons of
products, tons of products basedon how well they work. And they
(10:50):
said, wire cutter is at leastfor now officially agnostic on
the best dishwasher detergentsand rinse aides.
Oh, wow.
I know, isn't that interesting?
They say I found the productsthat seemed to work the best
with my water supply in mydishwasher, but I'm positive
that they will not be the bestchoice for everyone or even most
people.
(11:12):
Darn it.
Isn't that crazy?
I mean, it. It makes sense. Imean, it's kind of like, I know,
shampoo, right? I know, theshampoo I use. Like when a
friend comes and uses myshampoo. I'm like, isn't that
gonna work on your hair? You'renot gonna enjoy this? Yes,
it's like different stuff.
Different oils, differentwhatever. But in your water.
It's like nobody's water isexactly the same.
(11:35):
And nobody's dishwasher. Yeah,it's the same brand. And it
works totally differently justrandomly. Yeah. And
it depends on whether you cleanit or not. Which apparently, you
don't really have to,like clean my filter at least
once a month. But yeah, Ihear I don't know where mine is.
I have an old dishwasher, whichdoesn't necessarily mean it's, I
don't think that I don't thinkthe dishwasher is a problem. But
(11:56):
ithasn't convinced you this, this
whole project has not convincedyou to buy a new dishwasher. You
know, especially because I had amaintenance guy come out and it
was just the seal that wasbroken. And he was like, No, you
need to keep this dishwasher foras long as you can. Because no,
it's not the most waterfriendly, or water saving. But
he's like the new ones are junk.
And my brother in law bought oneI think I think it was as a
(12:18):
dishwasher. I know he hadtrouble with his refrigerator,
and I'm pretty sure hisdishwasher broke. A brand new
one broke within like, a couplemonths. And he said it's just
been a nightmare. I'm like,Alright, I'm gonna keep this
like old lady chugging along foras long as I can.
I mean, yeah, Better that thanin the landfill, you know, is
still doing his job.
I know. I'm thinking. And well,one other interesting thing is
(12:41):
that I found here I have a it'shere somewhere. But it's
basically like, If yourdishwasher was made after 1994,
then it's probably going to usebetween like seven and 10
gallons per load. Which soundskind of like a lot. And I'm sure
the new super eco friendly onesuse less than that. I think I've
(13:02):
heard that some use like threegallons, which is great. Yeah.
But I'm like, I don't think minewas made after 99 or before
1984. I don't think itwas like after 94 isn't okay.
Before 94. Okay.
I don't think it's more than 30years old. So I think it's
probably on par with a lot ofthe ones on the I'm sorry, I
just had a heart attack that1994 is 30 years ago. You know,
(13:22):
right. That's like 1015 years.
I know, I actually didn't dothat. I was like, There's no
way. That's correct. Yep. Allright. So I did and I'm, I'm
going to just share thehighlights of this because it
goes deep. It goes deep. Ilooked into what is dishwasher
detergent, and I just feel likeit's not really necessary
(13:45):
because I'm not advising anybodyto make their own right. But I
do find it kind of interesting,especially if you're on the
market and you're shoppingaround. The wire cutter
recommends experimenting, soexperiment away, which I'm gonna
have to do now, butI wish they sold sample do they
sell samples of detergents? Idon't know. Because then you
could be like, Oh, this is theone for me. But
(14:07):
they should the hard thing is itusually takes like a week for
you to figure out if it'sactually working on you gotta
use. But yeah, if you have aweak sample weeks worth of a
sample, yeah, yeah, that wouldbe nice, actually, but they
probably don't companies don'twant that. They just want you to
buy a little bit. Yeah, so realquick compound. kim.com says
dishwasher detergents are mademutually from salts that prevent
(14:31):
limescale buildup. Okay, they'remade from builders like
phosphates citrates. Polycarboxylates that soften water
phosphates are kind of out. I'llexplain why in a bit. So they
use surfactants which are soapand they remove grease and food
they use alkalis. If I greaseenzymes, which apparently are
extremely important. They breakdown starch and protein they use
(14:55):
either like a bleach or peroxidereleasing compound that takes
away color. What I'm kind oflike, confused why they would
need to take away color, butwhatever. And then some
dishwasher detergents contain arinse aid. But a lot of times
you have to use a rentedseparately or they tell you you
do I don't know if I believe it,but I didn't look into rinse
(15:15):
aid. So, so quick note aboutphosphates. That was the first
thing I ran into in my researchwas, oh, phosphates were banned
in, I don't know, New York Timessays 2010. But they said like 17
states banned phosphates fromdishwasher detergent, and
everybody just like, everybodyin the ICO world is like, no
phosphates are terrible.
Basically, phosphates can causealgae, like too many phosphates
(15:37):
in an waterway can cause analgae bloom, which reduces
oxygen and potentially kills offthe fishies and other organisms
living there.
I hate a toxic algae bloom.
They'rethe worst. Yeah, so it's not
good. But we have just for therecord, we have this algae that
blooms in the lake here inAustin, and it kills dogs. Oh,
(15:58):
yeah.
I don't know. I'm curious,actually. Because I've we have
the same thing. And there weresigns that were like, do not let
your dog swimming as water. Idon't know if it's the same
thing.
If it's caused by phosphates oryeah, just heat in general,
it's hard to say, I know, Iheard that climate change is
making them way worse, or maybeway more frequent. But that
(16:19):
would be kind of interesting tolook into. Yeah, yeah, algae
blooms are not good. So. But theinteresting thing, and this is
just one study and one opinion,but the agricultural policy
review says that becausephosphorus limits have already
been introduced at wastewatertreatment facilities in the
worst affected areas, thatphosphate bands aren't actually
(16:43):
that effective, because thewastewater treatment facilities
are just they're not loweringhow much they lead out into the
water. Okay. Yeah. Cuz theirlimits are the same. So they're
not, they didn't really change.
This is what this study said. SoI was like, Oh, that's so
interesting, because everybodythinks like, Oh, get rid of this
thing. Don't have it. Right.
(17:04):
Yeah. It's basically likephosphate bands just made it
really like a lot cheaper forthem to operate. But it didn't
necessarily mean that there'sless phosphates go being
released into the water, right.
But on the flip side, I waslike, but I guess phosphate
mining is probably really bad.
Yes, I looked it up Center forBiological Diversity says strip
mining for phosphate rockviolently transforms the
(17:25):
environment in irreparablychanging the character of the
natural landscape. So I actuallythink you can still buy
detergents with phosphates inthem. So it's sort of like a, I
don't know, a mixed bag, they doapparently make the detergent
work a lot better. Like the NewYork Times even said better for
(17:47):
the environment worse for yourdishes or something. Okay. So
that's kind of hard. So we'rekind of like, I don't think
we're playing catch up anymore.
But without phosphates, it's alittle bit tricky to get super
clean dishes.
Okay. That's the sacrifice youmake? Yeah,
I think so. Yeah. So I don'tknow, I just found that whole
thing kind of interesting. Butthe other ingredients that I
(18:09):
found in finish the finishquantum, that product was rated
A C from the EnvironmentalWorking Group, which isn't bad.
But then when you get down intoit, I counted on the
Environmental Working Groupswebsite, I counted 16
ingredients, where there was atleast some concern for things
like acute and chronic aquatictoxicity, general systemic slash
(18:33):
organ effects, damage to DNA,which I had never seen before.
Cancer and more fun things likethat.
All the fun.
So it's really hard because it'slike, I don't know, I just in my
gut, don't trust this finish.
And if you like, I taste it onmy dishes. You know, so if I can
(18:53):
taste soap, then I'm definitelyingesting it. My daughter's
ingesting it. So I just feellike, I don't know, I feel like
I need to find something else.
Even if the EnvironmentalWorking Group rates at a sea
which isn't that bad. Yeah, it'snot stellar. Right. I thought it
was gonna be way worse,actually. But yeah, fair.
(19:15):
That's always a surprise. Yeah,fun surprise,
right. But for example, they docontain alcohol ethoxylates that
can cause acute aquatictoxicity, which is verified by
the National Library of Medicineand potentially damaged gut
health, which is there was astudy from the University of
Zurich that said, thisingredient, even the residue
(19:38):
might cause damage to your guthealth. So
Wow. Okay, so no, thank you.
Yeah. But it's also hard becauseI, it works. Well. Sounds like
you do. So I'm still not surebut we'll get there. I needed to
talk about the pods real quickbecause everybody thinks that
(19:59):
these pods pods areenvironmentally friendly because
that's how they are marketedso the film that a pod comes in
Aspen clean, for example, is oneof the best rated brands by the
(20:20):
Environmental Working Group.
They marketed their dishwasherpods as eco friendly dishwasher
pods slash natural slash nontoxic green Hui, well, okay,
it is it actually is you right?
And so, on its website, it callsthe stuff that the dishwasher
pod film is made from which ispolyvinyl alcohol polymer. It
(20:41):
calls it water soluble andbiodegradable. So the pros about
pods they do use less water,probably than liquid detergent.
However, I found they aremarketed as biodegradable. But
according to the InternationalJournal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, in2018, this is a quote due to its
(21:03):
in general increase in usage PVApolyvinyl alcohol polymer was
considered to be one of the mostubiquitous pollutants in
wastewater. Oh, gross. Yeah.
Because everybody's using podsfor their laundry for the dishes
(21:23):
for theirit's just convenient. It's easy
dosing. It's yeah,yeah. And that's, that's one of
the funny things is like thefinish detergent I use is comes
in powdered form. And the NewYork Times says later, if you
taste soap on your dishes,you're probably using too much
detergent. And I'm like, I stoleit in half. Yeah. Just get blue
(21:44):
everywhere. Yeah. The little redPowerball? Right, exactly.
So that is kind of frustratingbecause I'm like, Well, I guess
I have to get a powder. Andthat's my plan. But about these
pods about this film, the studysaid we don't understand its
(22:04):
path and breakdown in water. Andas much as 75% of it is
untreated and enters waterways.
It can foam which might inhibitoxygen transfer and harm aquatic
life, which is great. Not andalso because of its heif hydro
Felicity, which we looked atlast time, and I think it means
(22:25):
water,water loving, like how easily it
dissolves in water or mixes withwater, basically. Yeah.
So because of its hydrophilicityit can absorb dangerous
chemicals and contaminants likeantiviral antibiotics and heavy
metals at high concentrations.
When eaten, these can make theirway up the food chain.
(22:47):
So the little fishy, you getgets eaten by a bigger fishy and
then it ends up on your dinnertable and your daughter is
eating that on her dishes and inher fish.
Yes. Well, maybe not on thedishes. I guess antibiotics
probably would be on the dishes.
Oh,yeah, yeah. But then for flavor,
right.
And then plastic oceans.org saysthat strict conditions must be
(23:09):
met for it to fully biodegrade.
So it's not naturally returningto the environment,
just like those trash bags.
Yes. Just like the compostabletrash bags. Boo. Yes. And notice
it's called biodegradable.
That's a green Hui term, right?
biodegradable?
Yeah. compostable is, issomething that has to be
(23:30):
regulated but biodegradable isnot because on a long enough
timeline, everything returns tothe earth. Yes,
glass. I think. No, you're notglass. That's not a good
example. But like rocks. Yeah,like, if we get hit by a
comment. Yeah, my my twin sisterwho's a rocket scientist says
again, if enough time andpressure anything can turn into
(23:51):
dirt. So yes, exactly. Might bea million years, but it's enough
time.
Right. So that definitely mademe rethink using pods. I'm gonna
try to avoid them. I only usethem in my dishwashing my
dishwasher butyeah, yeah, it was pretty down
to I've quit ever since we'verun out of my last tide pod or
whatever. Perfect. I'm using ourwashing soda and Dr. Bronner's
(24:13):
Very good. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, that's awesome. So realquick, I'll get into the DIY
options because I tried two ofthem. So Nancy, if you want
Nancy Burt whistles recipeyou're gonna have to get her
book because I'm not going toit's quite complicated.
Good. The problemswere set. We're also look for
her. Yeah. Love you buy herbook.
(24:36):
She actually has three now Ijust ordered the other two.
They're all really good. Ooh.
And so basically you have apowder detergent and a rinse aid
and the powder detergent haswashing soda, baking soda and
green bleach. And then you havea separate jar where you mix
vegetable glycerin, rubbingalcohol, vinegar and lemon
essential oil. And you add eachof these to every load before
(24:57):
every side ago, I found it alittle bit of a pain in the ass
to be honest. It's just kind ofa lot more complicated than a
pod for sure. Yeah. But the nicething is all the ingredients are
legit, because none of thoseingredients are I mean,
everything's harmful for theenvironment, but it's on some
level. Yeah, yeah, none of themare really bad. So you know what
(25:17):
you're getting, you know whatyou're putting on your food,
your blah, blah, blah. But it'stoo complicated in it for me
left a film on my dishes. Idon't know what it would do for
you. Yeah. So then the spruce, Iactually didn't try their exact
recipe because we'll link it. Soif you want the actual recipe,
you can go to the website, butthey use washing soda, borax,
(25:41):
kosher salt, and then the foodgrade citric acid that I was
talking about. I don't likeborax, because the Environmental
Working Group rates at a DEA. SoI was just like, I'm not gonna
use that. So I just like doubledthe washing soda that may have
affected the efficacy, but Idon't know. It's just it just
it's not really worth it.
(26:03):
Because it's like if you'restill using borax, and are you
reallysaving? What are you cleaning?
Maybe it's cheaper. But yeah,right. And that
is a little bit. And that'sactually my next. So I did. I
actually did a really in depthcost analysis. And I like really
tried to do the math. And then Ifinally I was like, eff it. I
don't care enough becausethere's so many ingredients. And
I'm just like, I can't so manyingredients. And also there.
(26:25):
Have you noticed if you try tocompare like ounces, you have to
compare apples to oranges. It'slike ounces to cups. You're
like, How in the hell am Isupposed to
tell ounces in a cup?
And literally, I googled that. Iwas like, how many ounces?
Anyway, so that was a wholething. But
you know, what would fix that?
What? The metric system? Godit's so true, though. My Nancy
(26:47):
can do it. She's learned in themetric system over there in
England.
Totally. And actually, it'sfunny because on her recipe, it
is in the metric form. And so Ihave like trained. Yeah, it was
like seven and a halftablespoons. I was like, why am
I doing this is so stupid.
Anyway, so it is cheaper to makeyour own. And this is a very
(27:09):
much an estimate, but Iestimated you would save around
$3.50 to make your own versusgetting the finished quantum Oh,
per per box or whatever, persmall package. So bigger, like
24 Load package. I mean, that'sit's I mean, that's not that's
nothing to sneeze at. But yeah,that's so it's definitely
(27:30):
cheaper than the commercialstuff. But it's also definitely
cheaper than the greendetergents. Oh my god. I for
example, Aspen clean, I doreally love them. They are they
they work super well. And alltheir products have been really
good that I've used but it's $18for 28 pods. What? Uh huh. Which
(27:51):
is $1.21 per ounce. Washing Sodais eight cents per ounce. Wow.
And you pay for shipping, unlessyou spend like 70 bucks. Oh my
gosh. Yeah. So dirty Labs isanother brand. They have a bio
enzyme dishwasher detergentpowder, that's $18. Same price,
(28:12):
but they do 48 loads. So it'slike twice almost, which is
better. That is a little better.
Yeah, it has two enzymes. Iactually bought this one. And so
I can let you know how it goes.
Because I just was like, I don'tknow what else to do. There is a
cheaper one by Thrive Market. Idon't know if you've ever been
(28:34):
marketed Thrive Marketbefore. It's all over my
Instagram. We've got people loveit. I don't know if they
actually love it, or they'rejust sponsored but hard to say.
But they have one that's $6 for75 loads. So that's actually a
really good price. It might becheaper than finished, to be
honest. So it's a great price.
And pretty good ratings, butmixed results. And so I'm
(28:56):
positive that it wouldn't I'mjust feeling like no,
like I have been through thiswar. Yes, seeing the outcome.
And the funny thing is I lookedup like which which one that's
decent for the environment willwork for hardwater and Bob Vila
recommended this one for calledgrab green. And it's 1950 for at
(29:18):
loads. So it's also a prettydecent price. Write it in a from
the Environmental Working Group.
I was actually going to orderthis from Amazon, but Amazon
reminded me that I already did.
And I was like,come full circle.
And I remember that I had it fora while and it didn't work at
all for me and I think I gave itaway so Okay, yeah, so that's
(29:42):
we're really hoping dirty Labshas some better stuff for me,
but I'm just gonna keepexperimenting and cross my
fingers. That's frustrating. Itis I was like that's why this
episode was so hard. I was likedang it. I really wanted to
solve these problems, but yeah,I will. I feel confident it just
I'm very impatient. So aspromised, let's get into what
(30:05):
you can do today without buyinga damn thing. Do you want to
know? Yes, you might not do it.
You might already do it, butstop pre rinsing your dishes.
Dun dun dun I already I have Ifight my roommate on it. I love
it that out of the sink, scrapeit in the trash and put it right
in there.
(30:25):
I love it. So this okay, I'llget Okay. I'll just get to say
this was the most frustratingpart because everybody online
was like, Don't pre rinse yourdishes. There's this whole like,
hashtag, skip the rinsecampaign. And I was so on board
(30:46):
and then I did it with the DIYstuff. And it didn't work for
shit. No, yes. I still hadpeanut butter smeared on my
spoon. I still had my casseroledish was not even remotely it's
still basically had like chickenskin on it. I was like any we
start with chickens getthis come from? Somebody's
putting chickens get into like,Okay, I'm gonna give you my
(31:07):
gross disgusting secret. Okay,what I don't prevents but I let
the dog lick the dish. Oh,that's my gross. Well, my mom
goes to how do you know it'sgoing to kill the spit in the
mom. If the dishwasher can'twash dogs bit off the dish, then
we're all doomed. Like, why areyou washing them anyway? But
it's true. If it's okay for mydog to eat it. I let him like
(31:29):
the dish.
No, I don't think that's maybepeople listening will think
that's weird.
Or just lost. 30% of ourlisteners who enjoy these people
are disgusting.
No, I let my dog do thatsometimes. Yeah, it's it's
a treat for him. You know? Yeah.
Except he's gotten so used toit. Now. He expects it. But
yeah, no, he's no. He sitsthere. And he's like, it's time.
(31:49):
I'm like, No, this is garlic.
And he's like, I don't care.
Hmm.
I love it though. Yeah, my doghas gotten fat because we fed
her too much. So we've had tocut back but oops. Yeah. Okay,
so that's interesting. So do youever because they do say scrape
the food off into the trash oryour compost? Fancy. And then
(32:10):
just put in the dishwasher. Andso the interesting thing is,
when I did it with finish I itworked. Like yeah, I had to make
you know, tomato soup does notcome off. hardens into this like
it was permanentis a glue actually. Yeah, it's
yeah, I use it. I think in mostcultures, houses together with
it. Or wounds. Apply tomato soupand that. Don't take that home.
(32:33):
Nobody do that. Please. Oh mygosh. Like a form
of skin glue. Totally. Yeah, Ididn't. I just was it was so
hard for me to do. Like you haveno idea how many times I had to
stop myself from turning on thewater. But I just threw the pot
in. I didn't rinse it at all. Ithrew a couple plates in didn't
(32:54):
rinse them at all. And they werereally clean. Like totally,
totally clean. I took somepictures just because I want to
prove to people Yeah, ithappened. Yeah. Put that on
Instagram. ButI've heard it's because the
surfactants need a surface toreact to. They need something to
glom on to in order to cleanbetter.
(33:15):
Yes. So I learned this too. AndI think it might even also be
the enzymes. Oh, Mater thatmakes enzymatic detergents work
better when they can clean tofood. There you go. That is
according to The New York Times,feed your enzymes feed your
enzymes. So yeah, I was amazed.
And the other amazing thing ishow much water you'll save. If
(33:36):
you don't pre rinse you have sofirst off a few because a lot of
people think like oh I know adishwasher does actually use
half the energy 1/6 of the waterand less soap than handwashing.
When this is according to astudy from the University of
Bonn I learned it from treehugger.com But this is only true
(33:59):
if you run the dishwasher onlywhen it's full and you don't pre
rinse your dishes and they alsorecommend don't turn on the
drying cycle just let them airdry because why the hell not? I
know what is it don't get theirhot it's also it's your heating
your house to Yeah,and use the normal setting the
(34:20):
normal wash setting rather thanthe heavy setting. And I did
that with my pot and it wasfine. So the funny thing is is
like this, I think it was thisguy. John moral of the American
Council for an energy efficienteconomy. I like it. He was like
people are so reluctant to justtry or maybe it was in New York
Times I don't remember where Iread this but somebody was
(34:42):
quoted saying people are soreluctant to experiment and to
try and I get it takes me tolike I said I had to
like write because then you havea load of dirty dishes. Yes. But
the funny thing to run again.
Exactly. But it's also likethat's the worst case scenario
right? You If you don't, theworld didn't come tumbling down
(35:03):
because your one dishwasherdetergent didn't work. Right.
Mr. Clean didn't come arrestyou. So the Maytag man together.
Good cop, bad cop. Yeah, soI found that really interesting,
because I definitely fell inthat category was like, No way
will that work? Because we'rejust so ingrained. And it's New
York Times has 65 to 80% ofpeople do pre rinse. Oh, man.
(35:25):
Yeah. So green citizen.com saysyou might use two to six gallons
of water per minute to rinseyour dishes. And then so that's
like up to 15 gallons per load.
I feel like more than that,maybe. But ENERGY STAR estimates
that you can waste up to 3225gallons per year of water.
(35:51):
Three, over 3000 gallons ofwater per year just because
you're pre rinsing your dishes.
As I'm saying. That's not Yeah,so that's why I was like, okay,
thank God, I have something togive it to people because Jesus
Christ is not going to be DIYdishwasher detergent. Especially
because the pre rinsing onlyreally works if your detergent
is decent. So like I said,didn't work with my my DIY
(36:15):
stuff. So there's probably a DIYoption out there that will work
for you. Nancy says hers worksgreat for her. It's just not. It
didn't work for me. And that'sso sad. The New York Times also
said something funny. If yourdishwasher still sucks. Try a
better detergent.
Oh, wow. Okay, well, thanks.
(36:38):
Thanks, doc.
So to wrap up real quick, if youdon't have a dishwasher, I had a
request from my cousin. Shewanted to know how to decrease
her impact when dishwashing byhand because she doesn't have he
either doesn't have a dishwasheror she doesn't use it. So
there's one method that mighteven be out the dishwasher when
(36:59):
used effectively, oh, arecorrectly in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions? And this is thetwo basic method. Okay. Yep. It
can. Okay, you know, all that. Ididn't know that. So it can
reduce greenhouse gas emissionsby two thirds, according to the
University ofMichigan. Well, that's huge.
Yeah, two thirds.
(37:20):
And I think that must just befrom heating the water. It's
gotta be but basically, you fillone basin. If you have a double
bass and sink that helps or youjust I think you could just get
two tubs. Fill one of them withsoap slightly, not too soapy,
but slightly soapy water and onewith cool water to rinse. And
then use that to wash yourdishes. And you don't run the
(37:45):
water you're not using eaten noteven really have to use hot
water. And they also say, youknow, don't run the tap, and
it's better to air dry, then usea towel. Yeah. I don't know why.
I don't think there's somethingabout air drying kills bacteria.
Okay, I could see how a towelwould just be slick, stopping
and moving it around and movingthings from one thing to another
(38:09):
maybe.
Okay, I could see that. Yeah.
All right. So for my cousin,that's how you can try. You can
try that. If you don't alreadydo it. If you already do it.
You're doing great. So you know,that's how they watched it. If
you ever watch it a bar, youwatch some time? Yes. They just
did dunk it in this that dunk itin that and then then had they
had the third set to have as asanitizer? Yes. The tub method?
Yep. Yeah, Iwas gonna say I worked in
(38:31):
several places like ice creamshop. We did that exact thing.
So yep. Yep. And it was alwayscold water, too. I don't
remember it being like don't usethe hot
tap. Yeah, exactly. It's tooexpensive.
So too long, didn't read. Unlessyou love experimenting a lot.
Don't bother trying to make yourown dishwasher detergent. It's
(38:51):
so finicky, and the chances offinding the exact recipe that
work for you. They just it seemsslim to me. Instead, stop pre
rinsing your dishes. All right,so I got to quickly granola
rating it. Yes, let's do it. Oneto five. granolas I struggled
with this a little bit. But I'mI'm gonna give it my first cell
(39:16):
III wish we had a noise that went
wow. Wow, we've never had asoggy No, I think he just made
the noise for us. We just recordthat for every episode and just
perfect for us it. Yeah,I know. It felt like a big deal.
And it's you know, it's one ofthe things we're trying to be
really nice. Again, sorry,Nancy. But this one didn't work
(39:37):
for us. Yeah,I mean, that's the thing. It's
got to work and it has to makesense. Like I said the kitchen
or sorry, the spruce. Theirrecipe still had borax. So it's
like that doesn't actually makeit any better. So you're doing
all this work, and you still areusing work. So yeah, it just it
just wasn't it wasn't clear tome. Why? Why one would bother.
Oh, bummer. Yeah, but nownobody else. Yeah, you did it.
(40:01):
Thank you. I did it. Yeah, soglad
it's over. It's not over for me.
I still have to experiment, butI'll let you guys know how the
dirty labs one goes. Yeah,I want to I want to full review.
Well, maybe you've just did anextra granola rating on that
one. Yeah, there you go.
That sounds good. Yeah. Alright,so next week, is you
(40:25):
Yes, your turn. It's somethingwe've been waiting for. It's are
we going to eat our words onessential oils?
We've been dreaming of it. We'vebeen
yet it took me like, four weeksto research this. I was gonna
say, I finally have a thesis. Ithink I can Okay, I was gonna
say that's it's a pretty bigone.
(40:45):
So I kind of felt bad giving itto you again. I did, like want
to jump out the window. doingDIY didn't feel too bad.
We appreciate your sacrifice. Iwas gonna say maybe we should
have a new rating of like, howmuch therapy? Did Tiffany have
to go for this one? Like,because we know avocado stains
(41:06):
are top of your list fortherapy. But what about
dishwash? Because this has beena problem for a long time for
you is this filmis that in this soap taste? It's
just it's not. It's not workingfor me. So especially because
I'm not used to a dishwasher. Ihand wash my stuff for years
because my apartments in DCnever had a dishwasher.
So east coast it was like, oh,yeah, you had to wash
(41:28):
everything. Oh, yeah. Soit was like, such a shocker to
the system. I was like, what ishappening? I don't like it.
No, thank you. Yeah, it's, Istill have to teach so many New
Yorkers and Philly people likedon't don't rinse it. I'm
gonna have to really really hithome that not pre rinsing thing
with Joe. I think it's gonnatake because I have called him a
(41:50):
water waster before. I love him.
I lovehim the worst insult you could
throw at someone in thishousehold? Yes, he's gotten
way better. But I'm it's gonnabe I think I'm gonna have to,
like present hard evidence tohim to to get him on board.
Send him to the the articlesyou've read. Right? Oh, I do
have a story. Yeah, about here'sthe what not to try. And I know
(42:13):
this. From somebody else'sexperience. I had a roommate in
college, but she just put likeregular dishwashing soap, like
dawn, and type into talkingabout this. We have like a foam
party in the kitchen.
Yes. You mentioned that at onepoint. I think even on the
podcast. I don't remember whatthe hell you're talking about.
But don't do it. That is sofunny. Because that's like, I
(42:35):
did not think that was real. Youdidn't think that would actually
have I almost want to try it.
ButI should probably actually just
use like a little bit. It wouldhave been different. But it was
like she filled the whole thingup and like, what were you
thinking? She wasn't thinking,Lord, well, hey, I have my own.
I want okay, I want to lift thegas on Did I mention this on the
(42:56):
podcast? I want. When I lived inItaly, I was like 20 I was there
studying abroad. And I livedwith an Italian roommate and he
was a little bit older. So hisbrain was developed. And
mine wasn't yet tricky, olderpeople.
He was like past the 25 agemark. And so I left the gas
(43:20):
stove on slightly. Doesn'treally matter how much it is.
But the knob was turned. He camehome I fell asleep because I was
a grandma like they all call meNona because I went to sleep at
like 11. And they were out untillike three. He came home at like
three in the morning. The wholeentire apartment was full of
gas. That's terrifying. Yes. Andhe smoked. So I was like,
(43:41):
oh gosh, God, like just lit upin your butt. You could have
died from co2. Are you covered?
I think luckily, we just lefther. We had our windows open
because we just did but he likewent through and was like, Oh my
God. He was freaking out. I feltso bad and so stupid. Never did
it again. Oh, god. No, I don'thave gas anymore. But I would
(44:04):
check like religiously. Yeah,but I am a little bit dumb in
that way.
Your prefrontal cortex wasn'teven fully
wasn't developed. We'll say thateven though Yeah, I have more
recent examples, but we'll getinto those.
Well, tonight, you're a chemist.
So thank you very much.
Exactly, exactly. So yeah, sonext week's episode is going to
(44:28):
be the last one of the season.
And we've been talking a littlebit sporadically about seasons.
But all that means is that we'regoing to take a one month break
to give ourselves time to makethe podcast even better. And
then we'll be back to chat aboutwaste. That's going to be our
next season. But we'll talkabout that a little bit more at
the end ofnext episode. So yeah, and if
(44:49):
you have any questions orcomments, please email us a
greening up my act@gmail.comIt's been a very quiet inbox
this week. So we would love tohear your thoughts. send
suggestions and yeah, likewhat you want to know about. And
Instagram works too. We checkthat also religiously,
religiously. Yeah. All right.
(45:09):
Well, thanks for listening.
Yeah, thanks everyone. Okay in abit. Bye bye
I had to make you know tomatosoup does not come off. hardens
into this latest permanent isa glue actually. Yeah,
it's yeah I use itthey can most cultures, houses
together with it hi Tiffany.
Hi, cat.
(00:22):
How are you doing this evening?
I'm doing pretty well, asidefrom dealing with a daughter who
pooped after I put her down tosleep, but
better out then I always sayyou always say that about Oh,
yeah. That's true, though. It'strue. How are you?
(00:45):
Oh, good. Just summertime andstarted here. It's my first so
time for the heatwave. actuallybeen really nice. Okay. It
was like, is it actually hot?
It's supposed to get to the 90sthis week, but it's been raining
on the weekends, which is nicefor us just so dry last year
that hopefully none of ourtomatoes die this year. But
(01:06):
yeah, Ihad that problem. Last year to
all of my raspberries. I wasjust too lazy to water them. And
the year before I didn't need toso I just didn't. And then we go
for raspberries the wholeseason. It was sad.
Yeah. My grandfather used to sayin Texas. Well, if it doesn't
rain, I don't have a garden. Soah, yeah, he wouldn't water
things be in pretty good crops.
And yeah,I mean, yeah, I was gonna say I
(01:27):
feel like, that's probably thesmart way to go about it. Water
conservation wise.
Yeah. Still, it's nice to have.
Yeah. You know, like, when youplant things, it's hard to watch
them die. And totally,yes, I actually just planted a
whole pollinator garden in myfront yard. And I'm really
excited. Actually, my friendJulia came and helped me and I
(01:48):
was like, thank God, becausethis is a lot of work. Gardening
is hard.
It is, especially as you'relearning, you know, like, we're,
we're playing scope or there'syou interact with each other.
Which ones like the same kind ofsoil?
Yeah, exactly. And I'm reallyjust guessing and using
resources. My state actuallyMaryland has really good charts
and stuff, but that's good. I'mguessing but I'm like trying to
(02:11):
go native trying to gopollinator friendly. So we'll
see how it works out.
I'm trying to I tried to dopollinator friendly and anti
mosquitomix those did not know that was
even a thing.
Any items, and I just plantedsome of those. That's good.
There's a few others that Whoa,the mosquitoes don't like so
(02:31):
I had no idea. Yeah, I plantedsome from seeds, just because I
had the seeds. I was like, oh,cool, man. It'll dry it. And
there's like seven growing, sothat's
nice. Yeah, geraniums apparentlyreally like acidic soil.
Oh, this is not I just put themin a pot. So.
Oh, well. Oh, well. That's whatI mean. You could bring them in
when it's cold to them, though.
Oh, yeah.
Did they last?
(02:52):
I have never had a geraniumlast. Okay. I was gonna say I
thinktheir annual right. Yeah. Which
means they die. I can'tremember. Yeah, they die every
year if they're annual. Yeah,that makes sense. Yeah. So I can
update folks on my pollinatorgarden. But
yeah, we want pictures when itstarts blooming. Yeah, they're
far from that. Oh, man thissummer. Yeah, yeah. Next season.
Yeah, totally. Alright, soyou want to get into it? Yeah.
(03:14):
Okay. Sowe should say, Welcome to
greening up my rightwho are we? What are we doing
here? What are we doing here?
Tell me.
We are rating basically GreenLiving Products this season for
how housecleaning based on theireffectiveness, their cost
(03:37):
effectiveness, and their actualsustainability qualities on a
scale of one to five granolasfive being the crunchiest,
therefore the best and one beingthe soggy is therefore the
worst.
Yeah, nobody wants soggygranola, grow No, or
DIY green cleaning products thatare actually worse for you. Or
don't work or worse for theenvironment.
(03:57):
Yeah, because a lot of greenmarketing stuff is like, Oh,
we're eco friendly, butactually, it's just a word that
we call green hooey. Because itis it means absolutely nothing,
and nobody's really regulatingit. So companies can kind of get
away with saying a lot of stuff.
That doesn't actually meananything. So yeah, so he was
speaking of DIY, that doesn'tactually work.
(04:23):
Well, why not burythe lead? No, I'm not. It's I'm
being very upfront with this DIYdishwasher detergent. So I had a
wild ride with this one becauseI like really wanted it to work
and full disclosure, we're rerecording this episode, because
last week, I think I was likegetting sick or something, but
it just, I think I was also sofrustrated that it wasn't
(04:45):
working, that I like didn't knowhow to process everything that I
was learning and all theresearch I was finding and my
results and I was just like WHATTHE HELL YEAH. For sure, so
annoyed. So I was like, Can werecord I can do it so much
better. Yeah. And luckily I getto cat was okay. And I think
(05:06):
actually a lot of this is goingto be new because I did really
rework these notes. So it's notlike you're just gonna have to
sit here and listen to me saythe same shit over and over.
It's episode 11 point2.0 11.1. Yes. So it was funny
because like, I feel like mostpeople think DIY dishwasher
detergent is something that theycan't do. Like there's going to
(05:28):
be dishwasher police who show upor like
the Maytag man. Yeah. You cannothave tears like you shall not
passstraight to jail with you. And
but you know, I was like, I'mhaving so much trouble with my
dishwasher.
Let us know, how do you feelabout your dishwasher?
(05:49):
Well, basically, I had my disheswere extremely cloudy. So they
looked dirty. It was like, Imight as well not have even
washed them. I had to basicallytake vinegar of vinegar water
rinse and wash them out againevery time and like this is not
to be clear. I did not ever dothat unless we had guest
speakers something Yeah. But ifI really wanted them to not look
(06:11):
like garbage, then that's what Iwould have to do. And everything
tasted not everything. But a lotof the plastics have tasted like
soap. So like my daughter's shewould have dry, nothing wet,
just dry goldfish in her littleplastic cup thingy. And it would
taste like soap within a coupleof hours. I was like, This is
(06:31):
disgusting. I feel bad for her.
She's gonna grow up thinkinglike, oh, food tastes like soap.
The most delicious cracker onthe planet taste like soap. It's
terrible.
Exactly. So I was just having Ireally wanted this to work. I
even tried two different recipesthinking like, surely for a love
of God, something is going towork. I made a chart. And this
was new. I made a chart tryingto track all of the complicated
(06:55):
variations that I was trying inmy dishwasher. And all the
ingredients I was using and allthe results. And then finally, a
couple days ago, I was like,Screw it like, this is not, this
is not something that anybodyelse in the world is ever going
to do. So why am I doing this?
So for science?
(07:16):
Well, yeah, but I gave up on mytest. Because I was so annoyed.
Yeah, so cut to the chase, youprobably don't want to waste
your time, like I did makingyour own dishwasher detergent.
And I'll get into why next. ButI did want to say that I found
one insanely easy thing that youcan do without buying anything
(07:36):
starting today. You mightalready do this, I didn't, that
will probably be a lot moreimpactful. And this is whether
you wash your dishes by hand orin the dishwasher. And it's
gonna be more impactful thanmaking your own dishwasher
detergent. So I'll share thatwith you toward the end. Stay
tuned, stay tuned. First, I needto share my sources real quick.
(07:58):
Okay, so I use the New YorkTimes, a little bit about
phosphates. We'll talk a littlebit about phosphates and
agricultural policy review fromIowa State University also talks
about phosphates. I use compoundchem.com. Just for a What the
heck is the chemistry behinddishwasher detergent? It's
(08:18):
amazing that these things exist.
Yeah, I'm the Center forBiological Diversity talks about
phosphate mining. I use Aspenclean, it's a brand. I use their
website. I also looked up theingredients for finish quantum
Powerball, which who? Spoileralert, that's the dishwashing
(08:39):
detergent that I use. I useEnvironmental Working Group
which we talked about all thetime, and they rate products
from A to F based on theirtoxicity. attainable. home.com
talks about dishwasher podswhich is going to be
interesting. This is one of themost interesting parts is the
(09:00):
dishwasher pods US NationalLibrary of Medicine I used. What
was it a University of Zurich,they talked about the
ingredients in most dishwasherdetergents like the pre made
ones, clean and green 101 tipsfor a more eco friendly home is
by the book by our girl, Nancybirtwhistle. who we love.
(09:22):
She's a hard heart.
She had one of the DIY recipes.
The book is really good.
Unfortunately, this recipe didnot work out for me, but that's
okay. Can't be perfect. Thespruce had the other DIY recipe.
And a couple final things. Ilooked at the University of
Michigan had an article aboutfighting climate change at the
(09:44):
sink.
Wow. Yeah. Found that.
Incidentally, our other podcastname was going to be oh man.
That's a cool one. I use treehugger they talked about
dishwasher this dishwashingversion. Oh my god. dishwasher
inversion, handwashing. And thenthe New York Times also had this
(10:05):
really good article about how tomake your dishwasher work
better. And I was like, PleaseGod, tell me because I'm so done
with this. Alright, so those aremy sources. That's what I used.
So, let's get into dishwasherdetergent and why you should
just save yourself the time andthe headache of making your own
unless you're a glutton forpunishment. The basic reason is
(10:27):
no matter how well a DIY recipeworks for one person, it
probably won't work for the nextperson. The New York Times wire
cutter article that I mentionedthat was so helpful, proved my
point. Because wire cutter is awebsite that rates tons of
products, tons of products basedon how well they work. And they
(10:50):
said, wire cutter is at leastfor now officially agnostic on
the best dishwasher detergentsand rinse aides.
Oh, wow.
I know, isn't that interesting?
They say I found the productsthat seemed to work the best
with my water supply in mydishwasher, but I'm positive
that they will not be the bestchoice for everyone or even most
people.
(11:12):
Darn it.
Isn't that crazy?
I mean, it. It makes sense. Imean, it's kind of like, I know,
shampoo, right? I know, theshampoo I use. Like when a
friend comes and uses myshampoo. I'm like, isn't that
gonna work on your hair? You'renot gonna enjoy this? Yes,
it's like different stuff.
Different oils, differentwhatever. But in your water.
It's like nobody's water isexactly the same.
(11:35):
And nobody's dishwasher. Yeah,it's the same brand. And it
works totally differently justrandomly. Yeah. And
it depends on whether you cleanit or not. Which apparently, you
don't really have to,like clean my filter at least
once a month. But yeah, Ihear I don't know where mine is.
I have an old dishwasher, whichdoesn't necessarily mean it's, I
don't think that I don't thinkthe dishwasher is a problem. But
(11:56):
ithasn't convinced you this, this
whole project has not convincedyou to buy a new dishwasher. You
know, especially because I had amaintenance guy come out and it
was just the seal that wasbroken. And he was like, No, you
need to keep this dishwasher foras long as you can. Because no,
it's not the most waterfriendly, or water saving. But
he's like the new ones are junk.
And my brother in law bought oneI think I think it was as a
(12:18):
dishwasher. I know he hadtrouble with his refrigerator,
and I'm pretty sure hisdishwasher broke. A brand new
one broke within like, a couplemonths. And he said it's just
been a nightmare. I'm like,Alright, I'm gonna keep this
like old lady chugging along foras long as I can.
I mean, yeah, Better that thanin the landfill, you know, is
still doing his job.
I know. I'm thinking. And well,one other interesting thing is
(12:41):
that I found here I have a it'shere somewhere. But it's
basically like, If yourdishwasher was made after 1994,
then it's probably going to usebetween like seven and 10
gallons per load. Which soundskind of like a lot. And I'm sure
the new super eco friendly onesuse less than that. I think I've
(13:02):
heard that some use like threegallons, which is great. Yeah.
But I'm like, I don't think minewas made after 99 or before
1984. I don't think itwas like after 94 isn't okay.
Before 94. Okay.
I don't think it's more than 30years old. So I think it's
probably on par with a lot ofthe ones on the I'm sorry, I
just had a heart attack that1994 is 30 years ago. You know,
(13:22):
right. That's like 1015 years.
I know, I actually didn't dothat. I was like, There's no
way. That's correct. Yep. Allright. So I did and I'm, I'm
going to just share thehighlights of this because it
goes deep. It goes deep. Ilooked into what is dishwasher
detergent, and I just feel likeit's not really necessary
(13:45):
because I'm not advising anybodyto make their own right. But I
do find it kind of interesting,especially if you're on the
market and you're shoppingaround. The wire cutter
recommends experimenting, soexperiment away, which I'm gonna
have to do now, butI wish they sold sample do they
sell samples of detergents? Idon't know. Because then you
could be like, Oh, this is theone for me. But
(14:07):
they should the hard thing is itusually takes like a week for
you to figure out if it'sactually working on you gotta
use. But yeah, if you have aweak sample weeks worth of a
sample, yeah, yeah, that wouldbe nice, actually, but they
probably don't companies don'twant that. They just want you to
buy a little bit. Yeah, so realquick compound. kim.com says
dishwasher detergents are mademutually from salts that prevent
(14:31):
limescale buildup. Okay, they'remade from builders like
phosphates citrates. Polycarboxylates that soften water
phosphates are kind of out. I'llexplain why in a bit. So they
use surfactants which are soapand they remove grease and food
they use alkalis. If I greaseenzymes, which apparently are
extremely important. They breakdown starch and protein they use
(14:55):
either like a bleach or peroxidereleasing compound that takes
away color. What I'm kind oflike, confused why they would
need to take away color, butwhatever. And then some
dishwasher detergents contain arinse aid. But a lot of times
you have to use a rentedseparately or they tell you you
do I don't know if I believe it,but I didn't look into rinse
(15:15):
aid. So, so quick note aboutphosphates. That was the first
thing I ran into in my researchwas, oh, phosphates were banned
in, I don't know, New York Timessays 2010. But they said like 17
states banned phosphates fromdishwasher detergent, and
everybody just like, everybodyin the ICO world is like, no
phosphates are terrible.
Basically, phosphates can causealgae, like too many phosphates
(15:37):
in an waterway can cause analgae bloom, which reduces
oxygen and potentially kills offthe fishies and other organisms
living there.
I hate a toxic algae bloom.
They'rethe worst. Yeah, so it's not
good. But we have just for therecord, we have this algae that
blooms in the lake here inAustin, and it kills dogs. Oh,
(15:58):
yeah.
I don't know. I'm curious,actually. Because I've we have
the same thing. And there weresigns that were like, do not let
your dog swimming as water. Idon't know if it's the same
thing.
If it's caused by phosphates oryeah, just heat in general,
it's hard to say, I know, Iheard that climate change is
making them way worse, or maybeway more frequent. But that
(16:19):
would be kind of interesting tolook into. Yeah, yeah, algae
blooms are not good. So. But theinteresting thing, and this is
just one study and one opinion,but the agricultural policy
review says that becausephosphorus limits have already
been introduced at wastewatertreatment facilities in the
worst affected areas, thatphosphate bands aren't actually
(16:43):
that effective, because thewastewater treatment facilities
are just they're not loweringhow much they lead out into the
water. Okay. Yeah. Cuz theirlimits are the same. So they're
not, they didn't really change.
This is what this study said. SoI was like, Oh, that's so
interesting, because everybodythinks like, Oh, get rid of this
thing. Don't have it. Right.
(17:04):
Yeah. It's basically likephosphate bands just made it
really like a lot cheaper forthem to operate. But it didn't
necessarily mean that there'sless phosphates go being
released into the water, right.
But on the flip side, I waslike, but I guess phosphate
mining is probably really bad.
Yes, I looked it up Center forBiological Diversity says strip
mining for phosphate rockviolently transforms the
(17:25):
environment in irreparablychanging the character of the
natural landscape. So I actuallythink you can still buy
detergents with phosphates inthem. So it's sort of like a, I
don't know, a mixed bag, they doapparently make the detergent
work a lot better. Like the NewYork Times even said better for
(17:47):
the environment worse for yourdishes or something. Okay. So
that's kind of hard. So we'rekind of like, I don't think
we're playing catch up anymore.
But without phosphates, it's alittle bit tricky to get super
clean dishes.
Okay. That's the sacrifice youmake? Yeah,
I think so. Yeah. So I don'tknow, I just found that whole
thing kind of interesting. Butthe other ingredients that I
(18:09):
found in finish the finishquantum, that product was rated
A C from the EnvironmentalWorking Group, which isn't bad.
But then when you get down intoit, I counted on the
Environmental Working Groupswebsite, I counted 16
ingredients, where there was atleast some concern for things
like acute and chronic aquatictoxicity, general systemic slash
(18:33):
organ effects, damage to DNA,which I had never seen before.
Cancer and more fun things likethat.
All the fun.
So it's really hard because it'slike, I don't know, I just in my
gut, don't trust this finish.
And if you like, I taste it onmy dishes. You know, so if I can
(18:53):
taste soap, then I'm definitelyingesting it. My daughter's
ingesting it. So I just feellike, I don't know, I feel like
I need to find something else.
Even if the EnvironmentalWorking Group rates at a sea
which isn't that bad. Yeah, it'snot stellar. Right. I thought it
was gonna be way worse,actually. But yeah, fair.
(19:15):
That's always a surprise. Yeah,fun surprise,
right. But for example, they docontain alcohol ethoxylates that
can cause acute aquatictoxicity, which is verified by
the National Library of Medicineand potentially damaged gut
health, which is there was astudy from the University of
Zurich that said, thisingredient, even the residue
(19:38):
might cause damage to your guthealth. So
Wow. Okay, so no, thank you.
Yeah. But it's also hard becauseI, it works. Well. Sounds like
you do. So I'm still not surebut we'll get there. I needed to
talk about the pods real quickbecause everybody thinks that
(19:59):
these pods pods areenvironmentally friendly because
that's how they are marketedso the film that a pod comes in
Aspen clean, for example, is oneof the best rated brands by the
(20:20):
Environmental Working Group.
They marketed their dishwasherpods as eco friendly dishwasher
pods slash natural slash nontoxic green Hui, well, okay,
it is it actually is you right?
And so, on its website, it callsthe stuff that the dishwasher
pod film is made from which ispolyvinyl alcohol polymer. It
(20:41):
calls it water soluble andbiodegradable. So the pros about
pods they do use less water,probably than liquid detergent.
However, I found they aremarketed as biodegradable. But
according to the InternationalJournal of Environmental
Research and Public Health, in2018, this is a quote due to its
(21:03):
in general increase in usage PVApolyvinyl alcohol polymer was
considered to be one of the mostubiquitous pollutants in
wastewater. Oh, gross. Yeah.
Because everybody's using podsfor their laundry for the dishes
(21:23):
for theirit's just convenient. It's easy
dosing. It's yeah,yeah. And that's, that's one of
the funny things is like thefinish detergent I use is comes
in powdered form. And the NewYork Times says later, if you
taste soap on your dishes,you're probably using too much
detergent. And I'm like, I stoleit in half. Yeah. Just get blue
(21:44):
everywhere. Yeah. The little redPowerball? Right, exactly.
So that is kind of frustratingbecause I'm like, Well, I guess
I have to get a powder. Andthat's my plan. But about these
pods about this film, the studysaid we don't understand its
(22:04):
path and breakdown in water. Andas much as 75% of it is
untreated and enters waterways.
It can foam which might inhibitoxygen transfer and harm aquatic
life, which is great. Not andalso because of its heif hydro
Felicity, which we looked atlast time, and I think it means
(22:25):
water,water loving, like how easily it
dissolves in water or mixes withwater, basically. Yeah.
So because of its hydrophilicityit can absorb dangerous
chemicals and contaminants likeantiviral antibiotics and heavy
metals at high concentrations.
When eaten, these can make theirway up the food chain.
(22:47):
So the little fishy, you getgets eaten by a bigger fishy and
then it ends up on your dinnertable and your daughter is
eating that on her dishes and inher fish.
Yes. Well, maybe not on thedishes. I guess antibiotics
probably would be on the dishes.
Oh,yeah, yeah. But then for flavor,
right.
And then plastic oceans.org saysthat strict conditions must be
(23:09):
met for it to fully biodegrade.
So it's not naturally returningto the environment,
just like those trash bags.
Yes. Just like the compostabletrash bags. Boo. Yes. And notice
it's called biodegradable.
That's a green Hui term, right?
biodegradable?
Yeah. compostable is, issomething that has to be
(23:30):
regulated but biodegradable isnot because on a long enough
timeline, everything returns tothe earth. Yes,
glass. I think. No, you're notglass. That's not a good
example. But like rocks. Yeah,like, if we get hit by a
comment. Yeah, my my twin sisterwho's a rocket scientist says
again, if enough time andpressure anything can turn into
(23:51):
dirt. So yes, exactly. Might bea million years, but it's enough
time.
Right. So that definitely mademe rethink using pods. I'm gonna
try to avoid them. I only usethem in my dishwashing my
dishwasher butyeah, yeah, it was pretty down
to I've quit ever since we'verun out of my last tide pod or
whatever. Perfect. I'm using ourwashing soda and Dr. Bronner's
(24:13):
Very good. Thank you. Thank you.
Yeah, that's awesome. So realquick, I'll get into the DIY
options because I tried two ofthem. So Nancy, if you want
Nancy Burt whistles recipeyou're gonna have to get her
book because I'm not going toit's quite complicated.
Good. The problemswere set. We're also look for
her. Yeah. Love you buy herbook.
(24:36):
She actually has three now Ijust ordered the other two.
They're all really good. Ooh.
And so basically you have apowder detergent and a rinse aid
and the powder detergent haswashing soda, baking soda and
green bleach. And then you havea separate jar where you mix
vegetable glycerin, rubbingalcohol, vinegar and lemon
essential oil. And you add eachof these to every load before
(24:57):
every side ago, I found it alittle bit of a pain in the ass
to be honest. It's just kind ofa lot more complicated than a
pod for sure. Yeah. But the nicething is all the ingredients are
legit, because none of thoseingredients are I mean,
everything's harmful for theenvironment, but it's on some
level. Yeah, yeah, none of themare really bad. So you know what
(25:17):
you're getting, you know whatyou're putting on your food,
your blah, blah, blah. But it'stoo complicated in it for me
left a film on my dishes. Idon't know what it would do for
you. Yeah. So then the spruce, Iactually didn't try their exact
recipe because we'll link it. Soif you want the actual recipe,
you can go to the website, butthey use washing soda, borax,
(25:41):
kosher salt, and then the foodgrade citric acid that I was
talking about. I don't likeborax, because the Environmental
Working Group rates at a DEA. SoI was just like, I'm not gonna
use that. So I just like doubledthe washing soda that may have
affected the efficacy, but Idon't know. It's just it just
it's not really worth it.
(26:03):
Because it's like if you'restill using borax, and are you
reallysaving? What are you cleaning?
Maybe it's cheaper. But yeah,right. And that
is a little bit. And that'sactually my next. So I did. I
actually did a really in depthcost analysis. And I like really
tried to do the math. And then Ifinally I was like, eff it. I
don't care enough becausethere's so many ingredients. And
I'm just like, I can't so manyingredients. And also there.
(26:25):
Have you noticed if you try tocompare like ounces, you have to
compare apples to oranges. It'slike ounces to cups. You're
like, How in the hell am Isupposed to
tell ounces in a cup?
And literally, I googled that. Iwas like, how many ounces?
Anyway, so that was a wholething. But
you know, what would fix that?
What? The metric system? Godit's so true, though. My Nancy
(26:47):
can do it. She's learned in themetric system over there in
England.
Totally. And actually, it'sfunny because on her recipe, it
is in the metric form. And so Ihave like trained. Yeah, it was
like seven and a halftablespoons. I was like, why am
I doing this is so stupid.
Anyway, so it is cheaper to makeyour own. And this is a very
(27:09):
much an estimate, but Iestimated you would save around
$3.50 to make your own versusgetting the finished quantum Oh,
per per box or whatever, persmall package. So bigger, like
24 Load package. I mean, that'sit's I mean, that's not that's
nothing to sneeze at. But yeah,that's so it's definitely
(27:30):
cheaper than the commercialstuff. But it's also definitely
cheaper than the greendetergents. Oh my god. I for
example, Aspen clean, I doreally love them. They are they
they work super well. And alltheir products have been really
good that I've used but it's $18for 28 pods. What? Uh huh. Which
(27:51):
is $1.21 per ounce. Washing Sodais eight cents per ounce. Wow.
And you pay for shipping, unlessyou spend like 70 bucks. Oh my
gosh. Yeah. So dirty Labs isanother brand. They have a bio
enzyme dishwasher detergentpowder, that's $18. Same price,
(28:12):
but they do 48 loads. So it'slike twice almost, which is
better. That is a little better.
Yeah, it has two enzymes. Iactually bought this one. And so
I can let you know how it goes.
Because I just was like, I don'tknow what else to do. There is a
cheaper one by Thrive Market. Idon't know if you've ever been
(28:34):
marketed Thrive Marketbefore. It's all over my
Instagram. We've got people loveit. I don't know if they
actually love it, or they'rejust sponsored but hard to say.
But they have one that's $6 for75 loads. So that's actually a
really good price. It might becheaper than finished, to be
honest. So it's a great price.
And pretty good ratings, butmixed results. And so I'm
(28:56):
positive that it wouldn't I'mjust feeling like no,
like I have been through thiswar. Yes, seeing the outcome.
And the funny thing is I lookedup like which which one that's
decent for the environment willwork for hardwater and Bob Vila
recommended this one for calledgrab green. And it's 1950 for at
(29:18):
loads. So it's also a prettydecent price. Write it in a from
the Environmental Working Group.
I was actually going to orderthis from Amazon, but Amazon
reminded me that I already did.
And I was like,come full circle.
And I remember that I had it fora while and it didn't work at
all for me and I think I gave itaway so Okay, yeah, so that's
(29:42):
we're really hoping dirty Labshas some better stuff for me,
but I'm just gonna keepexperimenting and cross my
fingers. That's frustrating. Itis I was like that's why this
episode was so hard. I was likedang it. I really wanted to
solve these problems, but yeah,I will. I feel confident it just
I'm very impatient. So aspromised, let's get into what
(30:05):
you can do today without buyinga damn thing. Do you want to
know? Yes, you might not do it.
You might already do it, butstop pre rinsing your dishes.
Dun dun dun I already I have Ifight my roommate on it. I love
it that out of the sink, scrapeit in the trash and put it right
in there.
(30:25):
I love it. So this okay, I'llget Okay. I'll just get to say
this was the most frustratingpart because everybody online
was like, Don't pre rinse yourdishes. There's this whole like,
hashtag, skip the rinsecampaign. And I was so on board
(30:46):
and then I did it with the DIYstuff. And it didn't work for
shit. No, yes. I still hadpeanut butter smeared on my
spoon. I still had my casseroledish was not even remotely it's
still basically had like chickenskin on it. I was like any we
start with chickens getthis come from? Somebody's
putting chickens get into like,Okay, I'm gonna give you my
(31:07):
gross disgusting secret. Okay,what I don't prevents but I let
the dog lick the dish. Oh,that's my gross. Well, my mom
goes to how do you know it'sgoing to kill the spit in the
mom. If the dishwasher can'twash dogs bit off the dish, then
we're all doomed. Like, why areyou washing them anyway? But
it's true. If it's okay for mydog to eat it. I let him like
(31:29):
the dish.
No, I don't think that's maybepeople listening will think
that's weird.
Or just lost. 30% of ourlisteners who enjoy these people
are disgusting.
No, I let my dog do thatsometimes. Yeah, it's it's
a treat for him. You know? Yeah.
Except he's gotten so used toit. Now. He expects it. But
yeah, no, he's no. He sitsthere. And he's like, it's time.
(31:49):
I'm like, No, this is garlic.
And he's like, I don't care.
Hmm.
I love it though. Yeah, my doghas gotten fat because we fed
her too much. So we've had tocut back but oops. Yeah. Okay,
so that's interesting. So do youever because they do say scrape
the food off into the trash oryour compost? Fancy. And then
(32:10):
just put in the dishwasher. Andso the interesting thing is,
when I did it with finish I itworked. Like yeah, I had to make
you know, tomato soup does notcome off. hardens into this like
it was permanentis a glue actually. Yeah, it's
yeah, I use it. I think in mostcultures, houses together with
it. Or wounds. Apply tomato soupand that. Don't take that home.
(32:33):
Nobody do that. Please. Oh mygosh. Like a form
of skin glue. Totally. Yeah, Ididn't. I just was it was so
hard for me to do. Like you haveno idea how many times I had to
stop myself from turning on thewater. But I just threw the pot
in. I didn't rinse it at all. Ithrew a couple plates in didn't
(32:54):
rinse them at all. And they werereally clean. Like totally,
totally clean. I took somepictures just because I want to
prove to people Yeah, ithappened. Yeah. Put that on
Instagram. ButI've heard it's because the
surfactants need a surface toreact to. They need something to
glom on to in order to cleanbetter.
(33:15):
Yes. So I learned this too. AndI think it might even also be
the enzymes. Oh, Mater thatmakes enzymatic detergents work
better when they can clean tofood. There you go. That is
according to The New York Times,feed your enzymes feed your
enzymes. So yeah, I was amazed.
And the other amazing thing ishow much water you'll save. If
(33:36):
you don't pre rinse you have sofirst off a few because a lot of
people think like oh I know adishwasher does actually use
half the energy 1/6 of the waterand less soap than handwashing.
When this is according to astudy from the University of
Bonn I learned it from treehugger.com But this is only true
(33:59):
if you run the dishwasher onlywhen it's full and you don't pre
rinse your dishes and they alsorecommend don't turn on the
drying cycle just let them airdry because why the hell not? I
know what is it don't get theirhot it's also it's your heating
your house to Yeah,and use the normal setting the
(34:20):
normal wash setting rather thanthe heavy setting. And I did
that with my pot and it wasfine. So the funny thing is is
like this, I think it was thisguy. John moral of the American
Council for an energy efficienteconomy. I like it. He was like
people are so reluctant to justtry or maybe it was in New York
Times I don't remember where Iread this but somebody was
(34:42):
quoted saying people are soreluctant to experiment and to
try and I get it takes me tolike I said I had to
like write because then you havea load of dirty dishes. Yes. But
the funny thing to run again.
Exactly. But it's also likethat's the worst case scenario
right? You If you don't, theworld didn't come tumbling down
(35:03):
because your one dishwasherdetergent didn't work. Right.
Mr. Clean didn't come arrestyou. So the Maytag man together.
Good cop, bad cop. Yeah, soI found that really interesting,
because I definitely fell inthat category was like, No way
will that work? Because we'rejust so ingrained. And it's New
York Times has 65 to 80% ofpeople do pre rinse. Oh, man.
(35:25):
Yeah. So green citizen.com saysyou might use two to six gallons
of water per minute to rinseyour dishes. And then so that's
like up to 15 gallons per load.
I feel like more than that,maybe. But ENERGY STAR estimates
that you can waste up to 3225gallons per year of water.
(35:51):
Three, over 3000 gallons ofwater per year just because
you're pre rinsing your dishes.
As I'm saying. That's not Yeah,so that's why I was like, okay,
thank God, I have something togive it to people because Jesus
Christ is not going to be DIYdishwasher detergent. Especially
because the pre rinsing onlyreally works if your detergent
is decent. So like I said,didn't work with my my DIY
(36:15):
stuff. So there's probably a DIYoption out there that will work
for you. Nancy says hers worksgreat for her. It's just not. It
didn't work for me. And that'sso sad. The New York Times also
said something funny. If yourdishwasher still sucks. Try a
better detergent.
Oh, wow. Okay, well, thanks.
(36:38):
Thanks, doc.
So to wrap up real quick, if youdon't have a dishwasher, I had a
request from my cousin. Shewanted to know how to decrease
her impact when dishwashing byhand because she doesn't have he
either doesn't have a dishwasheror she doesn't use it. So
there's one method that mighteven be out the dishwasher when
(36:59):
used effectively, oh, arecorrectly in terms of greenhouse
gas emissions? And this is thetwo basic method. Okay. Yep. It
can. Okay, you know, all that. Ididn't know that. So it can
reduce greenhouse gas emissionsby two thirds, according to the
University ofMichigan. Well, that's huge.
Yeah, two thirds.
(37:20):
And I think that must just befrom heating the water. It's
gotta be but basically, you fillone basin. If you have a double
bass and sink that helps or youjust I think you could just get
two tubs. Fill one of them withsoap slightly, not too soapy,
but slightly soapy water and onewith cool water to rinse. And
then use that to wash yourdishes. And you don't run the
(37:45):
water you're not using eaten noteven really have to use hot
water. And they also say, youknow, don't run the tap, and
it's better to air dry, then usea towel. Yeah. I don't know why.
I don't think there's somethingabout air drying kills bacteria.
Okay, I could see how a towelwould just be slick, stopping
and moving it around and movingthings from one thing to another
(38:09):
maybe.
Okay, I could see that. Yeah.
All right. So for my cousin,that's how you can try. You can
try that. If you don't alreadydo it. If you already do it.
You're doing great. So you know,that's how they watched it. If
you ever watch it a bar, youwatch some time? Yes. They just
did dunk it in this that dunk itin that and then then had they
had the third set to have as asanitizer? Yes. The tub method?
Yep. Yeah, Iwas gonna say I worked in
(38:31):
several places like ice creamshop. We did that exact thing.
So yep. Yep. And it was alwayscold water, too. I don't
remember it being like don't usethe hot
tap. Yeah, exactly. It's tooexpensive.
So too long, didn't read. Unlessyou love experimenting a lot.
Don't bother trying to make yourown dishwasher detergent. It's
(38:51):
so finicky, and the chances offinding the exact recipe that
work for you. They just it seemsslim to me. Instead, stop pre
rinsing your dishes. All right,so I got to quickly granola
rating it. Yes, let's do it. Oneto five. granolas I struggled
with this a little bit. But I'mI'm gonna give it my first cell
(39:16):
III wish we had a noise that went
wow. Wow, we've never had asoggy No, I think he just made
the noise for us. We just recordthat for every episode and just
perfect for us it. Yeah,I know. It felt like a big deal.
And it's you know, it's one ofthe things we're trying to be
really nice. Again, sorry,Nancy. But this one didn't work
(39:37):
for us. Yeah,I mean, that's the thing. It's
got to work and it has to makesense. Like I said the kitchen
or sorry, the spruce. Theirrecipe still had borax. So it's
like that doesn't actually makeit any better. So you're doing
all this work, and you still areusing work. So yeah, it just it
just wasn't it wasn't clear tome. Why? Why one would bother.
Oh, bummer. Yeah, but nownobody else. Yeah, you did it.
(40:01):
Thank you. I did it. Yeah, soglad
it's over. It's not over for me.
I still have to experiment, butI'll let you guys know how the
dirty labs one goes. Yeah,I want to I want to full review.
Well, maybe you've just did anextra granola rating on that
one. Yeah, there you go.
That sounds good. Yeah. Alright,so next week, is you
(40:25):
Yes, your turn. It's somethingwe've been waiting for. It's are
we going to eat our words onessential oils?
We've been dreaming of it. We'vebeen
yet it took me like, four weeksto research this. I was gonna
say, I finally have a thesis. Ithink I can Okay, I was gonna
say that's it's a pretty bigone.
(40:45):
So I kind of felt bad giving itto you again. I did, like want
to jump out the window. doingDIY didn't feel too bad.
We appreciate your sacrifice. Iwas gonna say maybe we should
have a new rating of like, howmuch therapy? Did Tiffany have
to go for this one? Like,because we know avocado stains
(41:06):
are top of your list fortherapy. But what about
dishwash? Because this has beena problem for a long time for
you is this filmis that in this soap taste? It's
just it's not. It's not workingfor me. So especially because
I'm not used to a dishwasher. Ihand wash my stuff for years
because my apartments in DCnever had a dishwasher.
So east coast it was like, oh,yeah, you had to wash
(41:28):
everything. Oh, yeah. Soit was like, such a shocker to
the system. I was like, what ishappening? I don't like it.
No, thank you. Yeah, it's, Istill have to teach so many New
Yorkers and Philly people likedon't don't rinse it. I'm
gonna have to really really hithome that not pre rinsing thing
with Joe. I think it's gonnatake because I have called him a
(41:50):
water waster before. I love him.
I lovehim the worst insult you could
throw at someone in thishousehold? Yes, he's gotten
way better. But I'm it's gonnabe I think I'm gonna have to,
like present hard evidence tohim to to get him on board.
Send him to the the articlesyou've read. Right? Oh, I do
have a story. Yeah, about here'sthe what not to try. And I know
(42:13):
this. From somebody else'sexperience. I had a roommate in
college, but she just put likeregular dishwashing soap, like
dawn, and type into talkingabout this. We have like a foam
party in the kitchen.
Yes. You mentioned that at onepoint. I think even on the
podcast. I don't remember whatthe hell you're talking about.
But don't do it. That is sofunny. Because that's like, I
(42:35):
did not think that was real. Youdidn't think that would actually
have I almost want to try it.
ButI should probably actually just
use like a little bit. It wouldhave been different. But it was
like she filled the whole thingup and like, what were you
thinking? She wasn't thinking,Lord, well, hey, I have my own.
I want okay, I want to lift thegas on Did I mention this on the
(42:56):
podcast? I want. When I lived inItaly, I was like 20 I was there
studying abroad. And I livedwith an Italian roommate and he
was a little bit older. So hisbrain was developed. And
mine wasn't yet tricky, olderpeople.
He was like past the 25 agemark. And so I left the gas
(43:20):
stove on slightly. Doesn'treally matter how much it is.
But the knob was turned. He camehome I fell asleep because I was
a grandma like they all call meNona because I went to sleep at
like 11. And they were out untillike three. He came home at like
three in the morning. The wholeentire apartment was full of
gas. That's terrifying. Yes. Andhe smoked. So I was like,
(43:41):
oh gosh, God, like just lit upin your butt. You could have
died from co2. Are you covered?
I think luckily, we just lefther. We had our windows open
because we just did but he likewent through and was like, Oh my
God. He was freaking out. I feltso bad and so stupid. Never did
it again. Oh, god. No, I don'thave gas anymore. But I would
(44:04):
check like religiously. Yeah,but I am a little bit dumb in
that way.
Your prefrontal cortex wasn'teven fully
wasn't developed. We'll say thateven though Yeah, I have more
recent examples, but we'll getinto those.
Well, tonight, you're a chemist.
So thank you very much.
Exactly, exactly. So yeah, sonext week's episode is going to
(44:28):
be the last one of the season.
And we've been talking a littlebit sporadically about seasons.
But all that means is that we'regoing to take a one month break
to give ourselves time to makethe podcast even better. And
then we'll be back to chat aboutwaste. That's going to be our
next season. But we'll talkabout that a little bit more at
the end ofnext episode. So yeah, and if
(44:49):
you have any questions orcomments, please email us a
greening up my act@gmail.comIt's been a very quiet inbox
this week. So we would love tohear your thoughts. send
suggestions and yeah, likewhat you want to know about. And
Instagram works too. We checkthat also religiously,
religiously. Yeah. All right.
(45:09):
Well, thanks for listening.
Yeah, thanks everyone. Okay in abit. Bye bye
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