Laundry and Sustainability
Everyone does laundry at some point in their lives. When you were young, you probably saw your parents doing the laundry. When you grew older, maybe you became in charge of the laundry. However, many do not realize how impactful laundry habits can have on the planet. Let’s look at some facts here:
- The average load of laundry requires 40 gallons of water.
- In the household, the dryer is the second most energy-consuming appliance.
- One laundry machine uses as much water as the average person drinks in a lifetime in one year.
Imagine going to a laundromat—most facilities have between 40 to 100 washers and dryers. That’s a lot of water used per year. Nonetheless, there are methods to “green” your laundry habits. Here are some tips on habits we can incorporate to help our planet:
- Wear your clothes more than once.
This method saves money, time, and the environment. Tossing your clothes in the laundry after wearing them on a daily basis increases your personal energy and water use, and therefore your environmental footprint. According to the United Nations Environmental Programme, you can consume up to five times less energy by wearing jeans multiple times, washing them in cold water, and skipping the part with the dryer or iron.
- Wash by hand.
Although hand washing consumes more time, it requires considerably less water and reduces your environmental footprint. There are also effective, cheap tools that make hand washing more efficient (ex: laundry plungers)
- Buy a drying rack instead of a dryer.
Dryers are not only more expensive but also require much more energy as opposed to drying racks. Asides from making the planet more green, drying racks can help your clothes last longer—line drying results in l
- Iron less frequently
Ironing is a tedious process that consumes energy, deteriorates fabric. Instead of ironing, you can immediately hang your clothing up after washing to reduce wrinkles.
Cite:
“11 Ways to Green Your Laundry.” Treehugger, 21 Sept. 2019, www.treehugger.com/how-to-go-green-laundry-4858690.
“Sustainable Laundry Practices.” Planet Blue, 22 June 2020, sustainability.umich.edu/environ211/sustainable-laundry-practices.
