Not a lot of people know this and neither did I until yesterday when I gave the wrong advice to a customer. (Slagging her off for not using salt in her dishwasher 😳 )
Almost 40{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of homes in the UK are not connected to main drains and instead have septic tanks systems. This gives special problems to households that wish to use things like a washing machine and/or dishwasher. Biodegradable cleaning products must be used at all times, washing machine powders must not contain phosphorus and dishwashers cannot use their built-in water softeners because the salt brine backwash process pollutes the system. 🙁
Washing machines present further problems to septic tanks systems these days due to the increased amount of synthetic fibres most garments are made from. This fibre lint is washed from the clothing and ends up clogging the tank and unable to decompose. 😯
So there! 8)