Environ. Res. Commun. 2 (2020) 021004 https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/ab716b LETTER A guide to household manual and machine dishwashing through a OPEN ACCESS life cycle perspective RECEIVED 28 October 2019 Gabriela Y Porras1, Gregory A Keoleian1 , Geoffrey M Lewis1 and Nagapooja Seeba2 REVISED 1 Center for Sustainable Systems, School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, 440 Church Street, Ann Arbor, 16 January 2020 Michigan 48109, United States of America ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION 2 Global Sustainability, Whirlpool Global Headquarters, 2000 M-63 Benton Harbor, Michigan 49022, United States of America 29 January 2020 PUBLISHED E-mail:
[email protected] 12 February 2020 Keywords: life cycle assessment, dishwashing, user behavior, GHG emissions, water use, life cycle costs Supplementary material for this article is available online Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Abstract Any further distribution of This study evaluates and provides guidance on improving the life cycle environmental performance of this work must maintain attribution to the dishwashing in the typical U.S. household. Typical user behaviors and recommended best practices author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation for manual dishwashing as well as machine dishwasher use are evaluated. A sensitivity analysis shows and DOI. the influence of varying grid carbon intensity, water heater type, regional water scarcity, and behaviors such as pre-rinsing and machine loading on overall results. Use-phase behaviors are observed through a small-scale laboratory study. Dishwashing following typical manual and machine practices produces 5,620 and 2,090 kg CO2e life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions respectively based on washing 4 loads (8 place settings per load) a week for 10 years.