Dish-washing versus Dishwasher?

Believe it or not, washing your dishes by hand is less environmentally friendly than running your dishwasher! The average dishwasher uses six gallons of water per load (four or less for energy efficient models) while the average faucet pumps out two gallons per minute.

Now, imagine hand washing all of your dishes while using only two minutes worth of water. Even with electricity use factored in, a dishwasher uses less electricity than is used to heat the water running through the faucet.