Here's my bottle cleaning regimen.
When I get empties from my friends or family, I wash them in the sink with cold water and a bottle brush (no soap). These bottles have been in circulation for a while, so the labels are long gone. Then I let them air dry, and stow them clean in a cabinet.
The day before brew day, I get out the 50 or 60 I need for the batch, and press a small piece of aluminum foil around the top of each. I reuse these foil caps from batch to batch. The actual sanitizing, which might be almost sterilizing actually, consists of me baking the bottles, with aluminum foil lids on, for 1 hour at 400 degrees F in my oven.
I let the bottles cool slowly in the oven, to avoid cracking them.
The one real strength of this method is that the bottles are well sanitized, and *stay* sanitized until you remove the foil cap from the top. I've left them capped for days before actual bottling, and never had a problem.
Anyway, I like it because it gives some flexibility with timing. Energy-wise, it might be easier on the environment than the dishwasher. Not sure about this, though.
--Pow