To make matters worse, last year congress quietly pressured the makers of dishwashing detergents to remove phosphates from their products, supposedly to reduce pollution. However, phosphates are what get your dishes clean. If you dishwasher appears to be working less well than it did a year ago, this may be why.
Thousands of Americans have replaced perfectly good dishwashers in the last several months, and find that the new machines don’t clean any better, through no fault of their own.
I’ve been looking for a box of trisodium phosphate to add to the dish detergent but the even the stores now sell “substitute TSP.”
“To make matters worse, last year congress quietly pressured the makers of dishwashing detergents to remove phosphates from their products, supposedly to reduce pollution. However, phosphates are what get your dishes clean. If you dishwasher appears to be working less well than it did a year ago, this may be why.”
The impetus came from Washington state, not Congress. Washington state passed a law banning phospates in dishwashing soap (only non commercial products). The manufacturers responded by removing phosphates from products in all states rather than sell separate products in Washington state. The Washington state law was based on poor science and no cost-benefit analysis. The proposed benefit from banning phosphates has not materialized.
Is there any source at all for a dishwashing detergent that still contains phosphates?