#5,254 in Health & Personal Care
Reddit mentions of AJM Packaging Corporation PP9GRAWH Paper Plates, 9" Diameter, White, 12 Packs of 100 (Case of 1200)
Sentiment score: 1
Reddit mentions: 1
We found 1 Reddit mentions of AJM Packaging Corporation PP9GRAWH Paper Plates, 9" Diameter, White, 12 Packs of 100 (Case of 1200). Here are the top ones.
or
9" circular disposable plate for single-use food serviceUncoated 100% paper is lightweight, microwave safe, and recyclableFluted brim to help prevent food from rolling or sliding offBiodegradable and Cedar Grove-approved for commercial compostingMeets SFI requirements for certified fiber sourcing
Specs:
| Color | White |
| Height | 7 Inches |
| Length | 20 Inches |
| Number of items | 1200 |
| Size | 1200 |
| Weight | 19 Pounds |
| Width | 15 Inches |
Alright, here are our assumptions.
Average dishwasher load (based on my house's dishwasher, with some adustments for roundness): 20 cups, 20 dishes, 20 utensils (combined forks/knives/spoons). This might seem like an overestimate (based on some cursory researc place setting counts seem to hover around 16), but considering that each "place setting" to us is only a cup, dish, and utensil, 20 doesn't seem unreasonable for a large dishwasher.
We could obviously fit more forks or even cups, but since you probably only use up a fork at the same time as using up a dish and a cup, this is our assumed load (we'll assume that we can only wash cups in the cup place and plates in the plate place - this is recommended for best washing efficiency anyway).
Let's assume you have the worst possible energy star compliant dishwasher. As of January 29, 2016, that means (if it can hold upwards of 8 place settings, which ours definitely can), it uses less than (for our assumptions, exactly) 3.5 gallons per cycle and 270 kWh per year.
Wait, per year?
Yeah, that number factors in both standby energy consumption and energy consumption from actually washing dishes. As far as I can tell, the only existing standard for energy consumption per cycle is this rule from 2003, which has since been deprecated and seems to no longer be strictly enforced.
We'll have to make do - from some very rough estimations based on that old requirement, it seems like standby energy is actually an extremely minimal part of energy consumption.
Those standards for energy usage per year are based on an assumption of 215 cycles per year - we then have 270/215=1.26 kWh per cycle.
The average rate for electricity is 13.15 cents per kWh - that gives us 16.6 cents in energy consumption per cycle.
Finally, water is extremely cheap. According to this probably pretty qualified quora answer (not that it matters because the numbers are so small), tap water's about .15 cents per gallon. That's .525 cents per cycle - a pittance.
We can then estimate that this massive (but efficiently priced!) dawn dishwashing liquid lasts about 150 cycles (half an ounce of detergent per cycle doesn't seem too bad, and I've incidentally learned while researching this that you probably use too much detergent right now anyways). That adds another 849/150=5.66 cents to our price.
Our total cost is then 16.6+.525+5.66=22.785 cents per cycle.
Paper plates, unfortunately, just can't match up.
The absolute lowest I could find paper plates was 1000 for only $13.99
, which is 1399/1000=1.399 cents per plate, or 27.98 per cycle equivalent (20 plates).
...and that's the game, folks! Not even counting shipping or cups or silverware, the dishwasher wins by a large margin.
PS: this doesn't consider the significant labor costs associated with washing dishes. If you value your time at even 1$ an hour, the ~15 minutes it probably takes to load the dishes adds a whopping 25 cents to the dishwasher's price per cycle, easily outweighing even some fairly expensive foam cups and plastic forks