Dishwashers: Literature Review to Summarise the Multi-Dimensionality of Sustainable Production and Consumption

Abstract

An automatic dishwasher is a water-using, energy-demanding contraption with 40–50 different component parts fashioned out of different materials—metals and non-metals—which over the last 70 years has evolved in its role as a comfort-enhancing, convenience-providing, time-saving white good in the kitchen of the modern urban household, especially in the countries of the developed world. Its lifecycle, which spans about 12–13 years on average, lends itself to research in a variety of sustainability aspects—politico-legal/regulatory, economic, environmental, social and techno-functional—and fields—thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, acoustics, economics, chemistry, microbiology, materials science, design engineering, wastewater treatment, energy engineering, consumer behaviour, and, of late, sustainable consumption and production. The end goal of this review is to present the automatic dishwasher—almost ubiquitous and taken-for-granted in the western world these days—as a candidate for progressive research and development, resulting in its continued evolution. The author facilitates this by providing an overview of the different aspects of sustainability addressed by researchers thus far. It at once reinforces the importance of transdisciplinary research, finds answers to a clutch of ‘what’, ‘why’, ‘where’, ‘how’, ‘who’, and ‘when’ questions, and reminds us that improvement/s in one aspect must not undermine or thwart those in any of the others. It is the first of its kind, as far as the automatic dishwasher is concerned; it is a well-structured review of 84 peer-reviewed journal publications focusing on the dishwasher, accessed through Scopus and contacting researchers through ResearchGate, spanning the time period 1980–2021, originating in 21 countries (with Germany leading the pack, with 22% of the publications), and sourced from 63 different journals. Over a 16-year period between 1998 and 2014, both the energy use and water consumption of dishwashers decreased by well over 40%. Consumers in the USA, reportedly, are willing to pay up to 90% more for a higher-rated dishwasher. Interestingly, a publication from Germany states that manual dishwashing, if done in accordance with the Best Practice Tips (recommended by another German study), can have a 20% lower environmental footprint than automatic dishwashers.

Contribution of household dishwashing to microplastic pollution

“…When this contribution is subtracted from total number of MPs emitted in the pre-wash (272 ± 85 MPs) and intensive cycles (1166 ± 143 MPs) to show the MPs that can be attributed to the dishwasher, the result implies a higher release of MPs in the intensive programme than in the pre-wash, which is explained by the temperature effect, showing that higher temperature leads to more thermal degradation of plastics (Lin et al 2022 ). The plastic material of the tub may be degraded by the heat emitted by the electrical resistance heating element of the dishwasher (Venkatesh 2022 ). Obviously, a longer programme implies a greater volume of water and therefore a higher release of MPs.…”

“…Stainless steel accounts for more than half of the mass by weight (53%) of the dishwasher, followed by the mastic sound-dampening insulation that surrounds the tub (15%), while plastic parts account for 24%. The remaining 8% corresponds to printed circuit board, pulp, wiring harness, among other things (Porras et al 2020 ; Venkatesh 2022 ). The present study is aimed at contributing to widen the knowledge on household activities as source of MPs by analysing dishwashing as another possible source.…”

Towards Reducing the Consumption of Drinking Water in Buildings as Part of the Circular Economy Model: Strengths–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats Analysis and Perspectives for Implementation

“…There are many studies and articles related to the topic of minimizing tap water consumption in buildings, but they usually refer only to a selected issue. These works concern the following: ways and methods of minimizing water consumption, i.e., [8], selected devices generating water consumption (for instance, dishwashers [9,10]), or activities aimed at minimizing the consumption of tap water, such as the use of rainwater or gray water, e.g., [11][12][13], and introducing circular water management [14]. There are also works analyzing a section of the issue of reducing tap water consumption in a selected aspect.…”

Microscopic Understanding of Interfacial Performance and Antifoaming Mechanism of REP Type Block Polyether Nonionic Surfactants

“…In the field of detergents, producing abundant foam used to be a major requirement for showing product performance in the hand-washing process. In the present day, the utilization of low-foam detergents is more favored, which can effectively shorten rinsing time, resulting in substantial water and electricity conservation while also reducing sewage discharge [10][11][12]. On many occasions like this, the achievement of effective antifoaming while maintaining the interfacial activity of the surfactant systems is of great importance, which is still a challenge.…”