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I recently bought a set of reusable stainless steel straws. They were expensive, but have a timeless "design" and have a build quality that gives the impression
by rubenbe 9y ago
I recently bought a set of reusable stainless steel straws.
They were expensive, but have a timeless "design" and have a build quality that gives the impression they will last a lifetime.
When dirty I throw them in the dishwasher with the other cutleries. They don't take any space in the washer so cleaning them is essentially "free". (Making abstraction of the ecological cost of a dishwasher.)
- electriclove 9y agoDo you have a link to the product you purchased?
- emodendroket 9y agoI've read that a dishwasher is less wasteful than hand-washing of dishes (perhaps this isn't true for people who are very, very scrupulous about their use of water while washing dishes, but that's not most of us).
- Sharlin 9y agoYeah, modern dishwashers use less water per washing cycle than it takes to fill the kitchen basin for handwashing.
- jimmaswell 9y agoFill the basin? You don't just scrub each dish with a damp sponge spotted with dish soap then rinse it?
- emodendroket 9y agoA lot of people do it that way. Anyway I rinse the dishes but I'm not sure I'm using less water that way.
- Sharlin 9y agoTo be honest, I used to wash dishes under running warm water, probably quite wasteful. By the way, around here (North Europe) we have special dishwashing brushes that apparently aren’t a big thing in most parts of the world.
- function_seven 9y agoAny examples of the special dishwashing brushes? I'm curious.
- Sharlin 9y agoThese sort of things, with a handle and nylon bristles: https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Dish-Brush/dp/B00004OCIZ https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Good-Grips-Dish-Brush/dp/B00004OC...
- function_seven 9y agoOh, that's what I use (I'm in California). They're pretty common here as well. I don't understand people who use sponges. They're mold applicators as far as I'm concerned :)
- emodendroket 9y agoI like to use a brush to get off all the gunk and then do detail work with a sponge.
- tonylemesmer 9y agoDepends on the dishwasher setting used and number of place settings being washed of course. [0] [0] PDF https://web.archive.org/web/20091109165849/http://efficient-products.defra.gov.uk/spm/download/document/id/598 https://web.archive.org/web/20091109165849/http://efficient-...
- bluGill 9y agoAssuming you use the dishwasher correctly: you don't overload it, You don't run it too empty, and you don't pre-wash/rinse your dishes. Fail either of the above and a dishwaser uses more water. When you overload the dishwasher things don't get clean and then you wash by hand afterwards (in the case of pots/pans this might still be less water use just because when hand washing you are likely to drain the filthy water half way through) I've seen people who scrub the food off by hand under running water before putting it in the dish washer - they are clearly using more water since hand washing plus rinsing the soap off is using less water than they use for the rood rinse. That said, I would not expect a dishwasher can actually wash the inside of your straws so that is one of the things that should be reserved for hand washing. If you use a minimal amount of water in your wash sink, and a minimal amount of rinse water hand washing can be a low water use thing. Most people leave the water running for longer than they need to for rinsing and this wastes a lot of water.
- emodendroket 9y agoI put straws in the basket with silverware. Works fine unless you've let something really dry on there (like a smoothie).
- ahartmetz 9y agoArguments about water "consumption" (hint: it's still water afterwards - it tends to clean itself if you didn't outright poison it and wait a bit) do not apply in humid regions - saving water someplace else doesn't help regions with water scarcity one bit. Berlin is an extreme example, they need to pump water out of the ground in any case to prevent the area from reverting to a bog. Hot water usually costs a lot of valuable energy though.
- emodendroket 9y agoThe world is going to have more, not fewer, dry regions where water must be conserved over time.
- wiz21c 9y agowater is not the problem. Electricity is. and besides, not everything go in the dish washer. And moreover some the dish washer soap can attack the surface of many things => increasing the need to replace those things...
- emodendroket 9y agoI think people in California, Cape Town, or various similar locales might disagree with the idea that conserving water is unimportant. How much electricity does a dishwasher really use, anyway?
- Dirlewanger 9y agoAbsolutely. A dishwasher in the average American household, unless they're having massive dinner parties every night, is wanton arrogance. They not only use more resources than handwashing, it also takes longer.
- rsync 9y agoI am happy to report that you are completely wrong about this. The water usage is almost a 10x difference and the power usage of handwashing is 2/3 more: "A European study comparing hand washing to machine dish washing found that hand washers used as much as 27 gallons of water and 2.5 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy to wash 12 place settings, compared with the 4 gallons and 1.5 kWh used by a hyperefficient dishwasher to wash the same number of dishes." https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/washing-dishes-dishwasher-vs-hand-washing https://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/wellbeing/washing-dishes-...
- walshemj 9y ago27 gallons is over 120 L that's over a tenth of a ton of water I don't believe that figure
- emodendroket 9y agoPlug the sink next time you're washing dishes.
- walshemj 9y agoWhy do you think I don't? And use a washing up bowl
- emodendroket 9y agoI never do except by accident and it illustrates to me that I'm using a ton of water when I hand-wash dishes.
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- mbid 9y agoHonest question: How many plastic straws do you have to save to offset the CO2 cost of building a steel straw? Also, are paper straws really better, CO2-wise?
- 4ndr3vv 9y agoFull carbon costs are extremely hard to calculate, and kind of miss the point of this intervention. An better question is "What happens to different types of straws when they reach the end of their useful life".
- bluGill 9y agoDon't forget the cost of all the carbon burned to heat the water each time you wash the reusable straw. As the other poster said, this is very hard to calculate.
- greeneggs 9y agoPerhaps it is hard to calculate exactly, but it is fairly obvious that a reusable steel straw is going to have an environmental impact over one's lifetime that is orders of magnitude worse than using disposable plastic straws.
- cimmanom 9y agoIf you're throwing it in the dishwasher with an otherwise already full load, you're not using any more energy to clean the straw than you would be to wash the rest of the dishes anyway.
- goda90 9y agoI think the meme of carbon footprint has gotten too deep. We need to address carbon at the power generation, deforestation, and transportation levels. At lower levels or carbon footprint, it's better to worry more about how waste is handled. If we're not reducing, reusing, and recycling, then we're probably adding more junk to the environment that still damages ecosystems.
- 9y ago
- devit 9y agoWhy use a straw at all instead of just drinking directly from a drinking glass, thus avoiding the need to wash and manage the straws? Also, glass is a better material than steel for food applications, and glass straws exist, so they are probably a better choice (unless there's a significant chance of breakage like giving them to small children).
- illegalsmile 9y agoThat's my question too, why is the straw in every day life necessary?
- nsrose7224 9y agoWhat about milkshakes and frappucinos? These would be awkward without straws. (And frappucions are a huge seller to the 14 - 20 yr old demographic)
- kristofferR 9y agoAm I the only one who slightly squeeze my straws with my teeth and mouth? A vegan restaurant I know has metal straws and it's so incredibly uncomfortable that I'm avoiding buying drinks with straws there.
- okreallywtf 9y agoI feel guilty when I get a soothie somewhere and don't have my straws and decide to go ahead and get a plastic one because I really want to drink it on the way home. Definitely good to have though. You need a nice pipette thing to clean them but it really isn't that hard.