A reader wrote to tell me that they have hooked their kitchen sink up to a gray water system. She wanted to know what kind of dish soap to use in this situation. I have been wanting to post about dish soap anyway, oddly enough, so here goes.

I have generally used biodegradable dish soaps for between 15 and 20 years. Not only have I long been committed to using products that are easier on the environment, I can’t stand the smells associated with regular commercial type soaps and detergents. The scents of biodegradable soaps, on the other hand, tend to be delicious which encourages me to get the dishes or the laundry done in a timely fashion.

I should add here that we have had to use Dawn from time to time due to financial or time pressures. It can be an adjustment going back to more natural soaps again. Natural soaps do not generally have the pizazz of mountains of bubbles and the squeaky clean (read chemically clean) qualities that industrial strength detergents do. You have to kind of ratchet down back to the natural way and understand that the dishes really are clean. Natural things tend to be more subtle. We have to make ourselves more subtle as well.

Anyway, here is my response to her:

You can use soaps that are labeled biodegradable and noted as safe for septic and gray water systems. There are a number of these. Seventh Generation is one I used for years. You can usually buy this at health food stores or at Gaiam (otherwise known as Seventh Generation). I tried Ecover once but didn’t find it effective and never used it again.

We have lately been using Mrs. Myer’s Clean Day Liquid Dish Soap. It comes in Lavender and Geranium scents both of which are uplifting, intoxicating and intense enough to make a difference to your experience of washing dishes! We can get this at our health food store here or I know that Lehman’s sells it. Honestly, using this soap is so therapeutic that even my husband notices it and insists that I use it for my sake. Isn’t that nice? Mrs. Myer’s is kind of expensive but it is very concentrated so a bottle actually lasts a remarkably long time.

This is true of Shaklee dish soap which we have also used. It was very effective, very concentrated and completely biodegradable so suitable for gray water systems. It smelled good too although not at Mrs. Myer’s type levels. We would probably still be using it but we lost track of the Shaklee distributor we were working through. Shaklee is a reputable company with high quality products.

Charlie’s Soap is another option. I started using their laundry soap a while back and find that it works really, really well. It is soap and not detergent. It is economically packaged and the customer service is great. They also make a multi-purpose liquid cleaner that can be diluted down to use as dish soap. I am going to try that next and add my own essential oils. The laundry soap works so well that I have complete confidence that the liquid multi-purpose cleaner will be just as effective for dishes and all of the other ten thousand things it can be used for. I only have to figure out what concentration would be appropriate for dish washing. You can look into their all-purpose cleaner at Charlie’s Soap. I imagine this may end up being the cheapest option. I will have to experiment and see.

So that is my little rundown on dish soaps. When you hand wash as many dishes as we do, your choice of dish soap becomes important. It is your daily companion, as it were, and useful sidekick. Whatever brand you use or whatever you might make yourself, I encourage you to combine effectiveness with biodegradable, safe for the environment kinds of ingredients together with absolutely intoxicating aromas. This is a combination with a little something for everybody including all the children whom you are diligently training to wash dishes!

From the beautiful mountains of southwest Virginia,

Leslie

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