I'm actually one of those bad m*****f***ers who pre-washes dishes before putting them to a dish washer. The reason is simple: the washer doesn't get the job done otherwise [say "Siemens" when you want ***t], especially forks and knives are often not clean after a pass in the washer. To make matters worse, the drying phase of the program really dries residuals on the plates and knives, and it becomes extraordinarily annoying to remove that from the plate. So instead, it's easier to wash that stuff away from the plates beforehand. For me it seems that this really is because the dish washer is not using sufficient amount of water to begin with.
On the other hand, I don't remember this being so in the 80s when you could still trust the ****ing machine to do its job. I think this is just the freshest addition to the long list of cock-ups coming from the environmentalists, this time they wanted to "save water", though it never became clear to me how in hell would that help those people who don't have it, given that there's a physical separation of 6000 km between this place and them. Finland is well known for the abundance of water, and it was, is, and will be stupid to "save water" in washing machines that in the end, results in people using it more since the washing quality is not good enough!
Additionally, how many of you dudes and dudettes knew that as a design decision, water piping requires some amount of water flow so that it does not get oxygenated (slightly bubbling grey water coming from the tap that clears up after a minute sitting still)? Well, if you didn't, now you do, and since people are using less water due to improved washing "efficiency", the water companies now have to pump water into the piping and flush it out themselves so that oxygenation is controlled. The end result is a pretty much 0 on the water savings, nothing got cheaper, and your dishes are still dirty.
EU actually requires +20 degree washing program for the washing machines ("saves energy cos water does not need to be warmed"), I'm eager to hear about how many people are going to use that!
Since I got so pumped up about this, from the top of my head, the list of environmentalist cock-ups contains at least:
- RoHS (oh so delicisously ironic regulation on so many levels), expanding this would require a list of its own
- 95E10 fuel
- imposing the same insulation efficiency improvement requirements to Nordic Countries than Central Europe
- CO2 trade
- Ban incandescents in Nordic Countries - seriously, LEDs are not harmful for environment then? Although, there IS one positive side to all this: I can get ****loads more light in my living room with the same amount of wattage than before, but somehow I doubt this was the intended consequence of the ruling
- Ineffective washing machines since insufficient amount of water is used
- Who the ***k thought the engine autostart/stop for traffic lights is a good idea? And not leave the user any choice to disable it?
- Making cars so fuel efficient that extra heaters must be brought inside since the heating power of the engine is not sufficient? But hey, at least you can take comfort in thinking you are saving the world when you're shivering in the car. It's for the greater good. We really mean it. Seriously. Although I must confess that I have my doubts whether general population picks your choice here...
