I went to my Costco right before they banned phosphates in the dishwashing detergent and got a pallet of Cascade with 5% phosphates. People looked at me like I was was crazy. I'm still going through my pallet 15 years later and my dishes are always clean :-) I just throw a bit of the detergent in the tub for prewash rather than put it in the cup, as it will leak out anyway. One thing you could probably do for the phosphate-free stuff is to add a "teaspoon of TSP" to the detergent and that would probably help - not sure if the formulation in today's detergent would agree with it though. I'll find out in another 5 years I guess....

▲

zeroonetwothree 3 hours ago | parent [-]

So we have you to blame for coral reefs dying

	▲	Yizahi 26 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Coral reefs are dying because of the water temperature increase coupled with increased acidity. And that happens not because someone uses a dishwasher detergent, they are likely not even in the same hemisphere. But because none of the governments are implementing any working green tech at scale, so the emissions are only ever increasing and the rates of increase is accelerating. Paper straws and bad detergent won't help when new coal and gas plants are constructed daily.
	▲	billfor 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Probably not I have a septic system.