A rather unusual topic for my blog… but I do a lot of research on the stuff I use, even dishwasher detergent.

Recently in Washington State, new regulations were passed that limit the amount of phosphates that can be used in dishwasher detergent (and soon coming to a state near you). Why? Something about the fact that phosphates do a dammed good job of getting food and junk off your dishes, but cause Algae to grow where it isn’t supposed to affecting the balance of nature that I am sure is probably causing global warming and killing animals.

Like a good Program Manager, I am going to get ahead of this situation rather than end up with etched wine glasses, and dirty dishes.

My previous go to dishwasher detergent were the Finish tabs. They are an all in one rinse agent and detergent in a little cube. Very convenient and I’ve used those for 7 or so years without any complaints (well except for the annoying plastic wrapper). Unfortunately, those have phosphates. A few months ago I tried Seventh Generation dish tabs, but they cause my wine glasses to get etching, and let’s face it, I’m not about to start hand washing…. The Dishwasher is one of the greates inventions of the 20^th century.

Enter consumer reports. I happen to be a subscriber, and read their reviews on dishwasher detergent and saw that they rate the method smarty dish tabs pretty highly.

I’ve been using these dish tabs for a few weeks now and am very pleased with the results (and no annoying wrapping paper per tab). I generally like method and use many of their products in our home (trying to use as many non-toxic cleaners as possible), so kudos to them for making an environmentally friendly detergent that doesn’t mess with nature as much.

And as usual, here is an Amazon plug so you can buy these detergent tabs in bulk.