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Comment by mtsr | Hacker News Reader

There’s also doubling the environmental impact of already pretty nasty dishwasher detergent.

Dishwasher pods are a lot worse than powder. The pods contain plastic which dissolves in the water. The powder used to contain phosphates (which caused a major disruption to aquatic ecosystems) but doesn’t anymore.

Interestingly I believe in many countries (but not the USA) phosphates were removed from laundry detergent but not dishwasher detergent.

Just as a data point, in the EU phosphates in dishwasher detergents are banned since 2017. Laundry detergents are phosphate-free since 2013. All other detergents are limited to some amount, but I can't find which.

As it is often the case in the EU these regulations are aimed at consumer level products. Industrial level products are regulated differently, if at all. I don't know details.

In France, the "lower-end" pods are wrapped in plastic, but it doesn't dissolve, you have to remove it manually. The more expensive ones use that as an argument: "no need to unwrap! just stick in the machine!". I'm not convinced that for the cheaper ones the wrapping is necessary, but at least it doesn't go (directly?) in the water.

Are you sure? The only pods that has a wrapping that is not supposed to be removed by the user are wrapped in gelatin here (EU).

> gelatin

Wait, does that mean that dishwashing pods are not Vegan?

Apparently not! But there are specific vegan labeled dishwasher pods on the market.

I pay county tax so that they process wastewater before putting it back into the environment.

How dare you use our highly efficient wastewater treatment facilities!

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