Prohibition Creates Smugglers, Even When it's Dishwasher Detergent

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Prohibition Creates Smugglers, Even When it's Dishwasher Detergent

by Josh Loposer (Subscribe to Josh Loposer's posts)
Mar 31st 2009 @ 3:00PM

Filed under: Food, Home, Polit-eco

Thanks to the toughest dish detergent regulations in the nation, residents in Spokane, Washington are now heading across state lines to get their illegal suds. No joke. In order to protect water quality, the Washington legislature passed a law back in 2006 which banned dishwasher detergents that contained polluting phosphates.

As the phosphate ban is slowly being phased in this year, many consumers are in open revolt as they realize that green detergents like Seventh Generation, Ecover, and Trader Joe's aren't quite up to snuff. In fact, it appears that many law-abiding Washingtonians have become quite addicted to their squeaky clean dishes. Many are crossing into Idaho to buy Cascade. In fact, there may even be an emerging black market for suds. Says real estate agent Patti Marcotte:

"Yes, I am a smuggler ... I'm taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot live with."

Supporters of the ban are blaming hard water as the reason green detergents are leaving dishes crusty with yesterday's spaghetti.

Comments [3]

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-31-2009 @ 5:57PM

Katy said...

Try the phosphate-free Palmolive Eco+. I've tested most brands and the Palmolive works best in our hard Seattle water on my day-old, dried-on dishes (I have a 2 yr old; who has time to rinse?)!

4-01-2009 @ 10:20AM

Rebecca said...

I am surprised that most folks that have such extremely hard water don't have water softeners. When I lived in Maple Grove, MN, the water was so hard that it would destroy a dishwasher in 6 months. To preserve my appliances (and keep my hair from turning green) we installed a water softener...I know that it's consumes more water but at the time there weren't too many other options...there is still more work for green technologists to grapple with.

http://www.greenat50.com

4-02-2009 @ 9:17AM

Baron said...

Somewhat off topic, but it is too bad politicians and many lobbying groups couldn't learn from every incident of prohibition type legislation. The biggest problem I am hearing about right now (which is where we go off topic) is more gun control. Gun control is fine, I don't have a problem with waiting lists, background checks, etc., but when they start banning certain guns because they think it is going to keep them out of criminals hands (or, in this case, they think that if they ban them here, it will make it impossible for the Mexican drug gangs that are using them more frequently towards the boarder to get them)... Anyway, I digress as outright banning is generally not the answer since people will find a way around everything.

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