Considering that 271 million turkeys will be raised this year–and many millions of them will end up on our Thanksgiving tables (sorry vegetarians and vegans, if that stat upsets you), you can only imagine how many dishes Americans will be washing come Thursday. I mean, even if you just washed one dish per turkey per household–and I know that there will be way more than one dish dirtied per Thanksgiving meal–that’s millions of dishes that have got to get clean.

Given all of that dish-washing that’s bound to occur on Thursday night, I thought it was a good time to remind you, dear readers, of the most eco-friendly and cost-conscious way to wash your Thanksgiving dishes. And that would be in the dishwasher.

Most people think the opposite is true. But check this out: some of today’s newer, more efficient dishwashers use as little as five gallons of water for the entire dishwasher load. On the other hand, says the American Water Works Association, when you wash dishes by hand, the average person uses 20 gallons of water.

Of course the key to making sure that your dishes come out of the dishwasher all clean is to position them properly for optimal cleaning, as this Woman’s Day article describes. This positioning is key so that you don’t have to rewash the dishes by hand and defeat the purpose of using the dishwasher in the first place.

Some people might think that using disposable items for Thanksgiving would be a great way to save water. But you’ve got to think of the waste you’ll be creating for this easy-out from washing dishes.

Remember: Americans increase their trash output by 25 percent at the holidays. Just check out these trashy statistics from Earth 911 on all that–it’s sure to turn your stomach. So while using disposable plates might save your house from using water, the trash you create is going to come out on the other end in a landfill.

Possibly the only exception to this rule would be to serve your Thanksgiving dinner on disposable plates that are also compostable. However, if you’re looking to save money on your Thanksgiving meal, buying all-new, compostable plates probably won’t work for your budget.

But maybe you can add these plates to your Christmas wish list?!