Dishwashers usually wash hotter than you do in the sink & reuse the water, so I’d imagine they also produce more microplastic in the process.
Comment on Cleaning plastic containers in a dishwasher is a source of microplastic pollution, study finds
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Betcha scrubbing them in the sink does too. It’s just harder to set up a controlled study.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Hotter yes, but no plastic-on-plastic scrubbing. And not reusing the water wouldn’t change the amount of plastic, it would just be diluted in a larger amount of water. My guess would be, larger particles. But I can see why that would have to be its own, more complicated study. Because so many more variables.
FooBarrington@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Do you know that water with microplastics doesn’t cause even more microplastics? Seems reasonable to me - the existing microplastic should be ground even finer, and also cause more microplastic to be ground off.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Interesting thought, we’ll have to include it in our study. I posit that the microparticles from hand washing will be larger anyway, because method, and will include plastic from the scrubber as well as the containers.
ProvableGecko@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
My dish sponge is plastic.¯_(ツ)_/¯