Application of Best Practice Tips in manual dishwashing in Germany and Spain

Investigations on the consumer behaviour of manual dishwashing have shown that there is a large variety of ways of how to wash up by hand, and the corresponding resource consumption is affected accordingly. In order to reduce resource consumption in manual dishwashing while achieving an acceptably good cleaning result, Best Practice Tips have been established (published in Fuss et al .) on the basis of laboratory experiments and the knowledge of everyday behaviour. This study is aimed at verifying the potential to save resources in real life when consumers are applying Best Practice Tips for manual dishwashing. A 4‐week in‐house study was run in two European countries, and data of the manual dishwashing behaviour were acquired before and after training on the Best Practice Tips. The results of both periods were compared with each other and between the countries. The test participants in Germany needed approximately 30% less water and 40% less energy, on average, in the period in which they applied the Best Practice Tips; in Spain, nearly 50% less water and 60% less energy for dishwashing in the period after the training. It has to be taken into consideration, however, that individual savings are very different due to specific living conditions, household sizes, practices in dishwashing and more or less prejudice against the Best Practice Tips.