Doing the laundry is one of the daily household jobs with the biggest environmental impact, and it is not always done efficiently. It wastes a great deal of water and electricity, and it also releases microplastics that sadly end up in the sea.
In this article, I am going to help you reduce your home’s ecological footprint through more conscious laundry.
Here are 7 tips that help me look after clothes day to day and make smarter, more sustainable choices:
Tip 1, Wash at low temperatures
Most of the energy in a wash goes into heating the water.
Where clothes are not heavily soiled, high temperatures are not needed, so I would recommend lower settings, between 30 and 40 degrees, or even a cold wash.
It is also worth using the economy programmes, which you will find easily in the washing machine menu.
Beyond the energy saving, washing at low temperatures puts less wear on the fabric, which makes clothes last longer and, in turn, means buying new ones less often.
Tip 2, Sort the washing beforehand
Another thing that helps clothes last is sorting them properly before they go into the machine. If you are not sure why, let me explain:
Mixing colours and fabrics can lead you to choose the wrong programme for each material. And the wrong programme, along with mixed colours and fabric types, can stain, wear and fade your clothes, which means buying new pieces more often, and more waste for the planet as well as for your wallet.
As a rule, every garment carries care instructions on the label, particularly about washing. I would always recommend checking that information so you sort the laundry correctly.
Another valuable tip is to put more delicate items inside protective bags to shield them and stop them deteriorating.
Tip 3, Treat stains before washing
How many times have you put something in the wash with a stain on it, only for the stain to survive the wash?
To avoid washing things twice for no reason (which, as we have seen, wears the garment out and wastes resources) I would advise pre-washing or treating anything with a mark or a stain on it.
If you can deal with the stain the moment it happens, while it is still wet, it will come out more easily.
Tip 4, Do not wash clothes that are not dirty
Yes! It may sound odd, but some people put a garment in the wash after wearing it for all of five minutes.
My recommendation is to only wash clothes that are genuinely dirty. Very often, hanging the garment out to air is enough.
Remember that in doing so you are helping protect the environment and saving money, both by avoiding a wash and by making the garment last longer.
Tip 5, Use the machine’s full capacity
You should not fill the machine too much or the clothes will not come out clean. That claim is plainly a myth.
Filling the machine to its full capacity (in kg) makes no difference to how well it washes. Not using a full load, on the other hand, wastes water and electricity, because consumption will be the same or nearly the same as it would be with a full load.
A word of warning: do not exceed the machine’s maximum load either, as that can damage it. The right measure is when the drum is full and there is room to fit your hand or fist at the top of it.
Tip 6, Choose machines with a more efficient energy rating
If you need to replace your washing machine, I would recommend choosing a model with higher energy efficiency, between A and A+++. It will cost more up front, but over the long run it will save you energy and water, as well as being kinder to the environment.
It is also worth thinking about the drum size that best fits your family’s needs. As we saw in the previous tip, we should use the machine’s full capacity, so do not buy one with a drum much larger than you need.
Tip 7, Choose the right detergents
We could not talk about sustainable washing without talking about the detergents we use. Some cleaning products contain chemicals that can harm the environment. I would suggest going for ecological, biodegradable cleaning products, which cut waste and have a positive impact on the planet.
Something else worth bearing in mind is how much detergent you use per wash, since using too much detergent or fabric softener wastes resources, damages clothes and machines, and puts more chemicals into the water that drains away with the wash.
At home, I choose to use the brand EcoX. It is the first brand in the world to turn a waste stream into environmentally friendly cleaning products. They are committed to the circular economy through reusing ingredients and packaging and reducing the use of primary resources.
How does EcoX make its ecological cleaning products?
EcoX products are developed from cooking oil, the kind used in our homes, and which otherwise ends up in the public network, in soil, in water and in our climate. This way they avoid extracting natural resources, while still meeting the quality (ISO:9001) and environmental (ISO:14001) standards required across all their products.
For EcoX, plastic is part of the solution. They created a unique container made with 50% recycled plastic for their products, which you can reuse many times over with your preferred product or scent. That container won a Green Good Design award.
Once used, the containers are sanitised, checked, refilled and put back on the market. If you would rather not reuse them, you can also buy loose in their shops.
I want to help you build more sustainable habits and washes. I believe trying EcoX products is an excellent first step towards protecting and caring for the environment. Which is why I am sharing my 10% discount code on any purchase at https://ecox.pt/ with the coupon JOANAM10.
If you have made it this far, you are more than ready to start doing the laundry more consciously.
Shall we make our laundry more sustainable together? Then share this article with someone who needs to know it.
