Even though automatic dishwashers are often the most eco-friendly option, requiring less energy and water than hand washing,  sometimes you need to clean up by hand. But traditional dishwashing liquids can leave chemical residue on your plates, glasses, pots and pans–the very things you eat off of every day! Not to mention where those chemicals go after they get washed down the drain–those bad ingredients can make their way into waterways, impacting aquatic life.That same chemical residue gets left on your hands, too. Dishpan hands are in part, due to the drying, harsh detergents found in dishwashing liquid.

So start combating dirty dishes with some more natural. Ecover Dishwashing Liquid is a one such eco product. The formula is biodegradable so it’s gentle on the environment and your hands. In fact, the Chamomile & Marigold variety soothes hands with milk whey. Ecover recently launched a new fragrance: Grapefruit and Green Tea. The scent comes from plant based ingredients rather than synthetics and the Green Tea extract can help eliminate odors naturally.

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The powder that Spokane residents are sneaking into the county may surprise you. It’s nothing they’re smuggling for illegal sales on streets, but rather, dishwasher detergent to get their porcelain plates into prime condition.

The out-of-county importing is a result of the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, which is being tested in Spokane before launching statewide in the summer of 2010. Conventional dishwasher detergents like Cascade and Electrasol can be up to 9 percent phosphates, but those sold in Spokane have a cap of 0.5 percent, which usually means buying eco-friendly brands like Seventh Generation and Ecover.

While such brands have been popular in other areas, citizens in Spokane have complained the green-focused detergents are not cleaning their dishes as well as the brands they’re used to, and have taken to driving into Idaho (a shorter distance than leaving Spokane for another Washington county) to pick up dishwasher detergent. Because the ban is on the sale of phosphate-heavy dishwasher detergents and not on actual possession or use, citizens who seek their dish cleaners elsewhere are not breaking any laws. Part of the cause of the unpopularity of the ban is due to the water in certain areas of the Spokane county, where mineral-rich hard water is resistant to soap and makes it harder for low-phosphate dishwasher detergents to remove food scum. Click here to read more

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If you’re looking for a hip, indie girl who’s constantly setting style trends and pushing the film envelope, Chloe Sevigny’s your girl. In fact, in the early nineties, when Sevigny was just hitting the fashion scene as a model, The New Yorker featured her in a seven-page article, proclaiming her the new “It girl”. Her subsequent work in projects like Kids, Boys Don’t Cry and Big Love was equally unique and excellent.

But Sevigny’s a trend setter with valuable advice on another front, too. She’s an avid eco-activist (or ecovist, if you will), who was raised with the three R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle); learning environmental ideas from her mother at a young age. Now Sevigny takes both big and small steps to stay green, using public transportation to get around–even with an ever-increasing fan base to interrupt her travels–unplugging chargers when she’s not using them, and skipping plastic bags not only at grocery stores but also when shopping for new outfits.

One of Sevigny’s favorite eco-friendly brands, however, has nothing to do with jet setting (or in her case, zipping around on a bicycle) or the latest fashionable organic frocks and instead is all about washing up. Sevigny is a self-proclaimed fan of Ecover Dishwashing Liquid and Laundry Wash. Click here to read more

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