Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Dishwashers, bleach rinse and post office boxes

[Fred H. Olson (fholson]

From: Mark Richardson <shanirichardson [at] hotmail.com>
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Mahalo,

I read retired environmental health administrator's comments about 
dishwater stuff, and tend to agree with him about the use of chlorine, 
instead of other chemicals.  I feel the best is very hot water, as the 
environmental costs are dependent on how you produce the energy to heat the 
water, and not the "wastewater product" coming out of the dishwater.  Im a 
current (not retired yet) environmental specialist in water issues, and 
deeply involved in "onsite wastewater" issues, so have given some thought to 
the old water in, water out principal.

Whichever chemicals you use are going to flow, either to the local town 
sewer system, or your own septic system, the least harmful, in diluted and 
intermediate doses is chlorine, so,as it disapates and is used up, as it 
moves through the waste plumbing system, (some larger city sewer systems 
actually add chlorine to raw sewage to "freshen" it up (keep it more 
aerobic) Well with these rambles, I like to suggest hot water  (which has 
its own problems with moving hot grease down the pipes and causing problems) 
or a chlorine rinse.
Just some thoughts from California.


>Subject: Dishwashers, bleach rinse and post office boxes
>Date: Sun, 14 May 2000 17:41:57 -0500
>
>Christine Pattee Greater Hartford CT Cohousing c2pattee [at] aol.com
>is the author of the message below but due to a problem
>it was posted by Fred the Cohousing-L list manager:  fholson [at] cohousing.org
>
>--------------------  FORWARDED MESSAGE FOLLOWS --------------------
>
> > Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 00:55:01 EDT
> >  From: Berrins [at] aol.com
> >  Subject: Dishwashers, yet again...
> >
> >  Hi folks.
> >
>
> >  We at Pathways need specific information re: commercial dishwashers. 
>I've
> >  read the archives and past posts and got a lot of general information.
> >  However, I haven't seen any information about specific brands (except
> >  Hobart).  We are on the verge of buying one and would love to hear
> >  about your experiences with whatever brand you have.  We had picked
> >  out an ADS model, but later found out that all ADS models use a
> >  bleach sanitizing rinse. Bleach is an environmental bummer, so we're
> >  looking for a diferent brand.
> >
>
>i'm not a chemist, just a retired public health administrator, so i tend to
>think about things like sewage and safety.
>
>i should think that most final cycles on a  commercial dishwasher would be 
>an
>environmental bummer, since the point is to kill germs big time.  superhot
>water would do it, but is expensive to produce.  other chemicals would do 
>it,
>but are likely to be worse than bleach.  i've always thought of bleach as 
>one
>of those good old standbys that do the job cheaply and efficiently, and
>therefore get over looked by the capitalist system (just like solar power).
>does anybody have more solid information on this?
>
>on another thread, post office boxes, i'm replying here from a safety
>perspective.  in case of fire or accident, emergency vehicles need to be 
>able
>to know exactly where to go.  therefore, every individual dwelling unit
>should have its own number clearly displayed on the front.
>
>we now segue into post office boxes.  once every house has its own number,
>the post office should be able to deliver to that address, whether directly
>to the front door, or to a numbered box.  apartment houses almost always 
>have
>individual boxes behind locked doors, which is why postal carriers have a
>huge ring of keys.  it's my understanding that postal rules are a federal
>system, and therefore should be pretty much the same across the country.
>have the people getting community mail all in one big pile considered
>demanding a little better service from their local post office?
>
>Christine Pattee
>Greater Hartford CT Cohousing
>c2pattee [at] aol.com
>
>