Modern day appliances such as the washing machine have certainly made life at home much easier. However, they have resulted in excess use of energy and water, and increased the amount of chemicals released into the environment. One of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint at home is to ensure that your washing machine has an Energy Saving Recommended logo [1]. However, purchasing a new washing machine is an expensive business, so until you need to or can afford to, there are several other methods for reducing the environmental impact of washing your clothes.

• Ensure that your load is full – this could save you about £4 a year
• Hand wash if you have smaller loads
• Wash your clothes at 30⁰ C
• Switch off the machine when it is not in use
• Only use your tumble dryer when absolutely necessary
• Use more environmentally friendly washing detergent

Laundry Detergents

As mentioned above, changing your laundry detergent is one method of reducing the negative environmental impact of using a washing machine.

Many laundry detergents contain chemicals such as surfactants, builders, bleaches, colourants and fragrances and while they may be biodegradable, it can take a very long time and this creates a build-up in the water systems [2]. When these substances do eventually break down they can cause carcinogens and other toxic substances to be released, thus having a negative affect on water systems and aquatic life [2].

Below is a range of more environmentally friendly laundry products that you could try.

Ecover

Ecover is one of the largest manufacturers of environmentally friendly household products. They do not test their products on animals and they have an ecological factory in Belgium. They market quite an extensive range of laundry products including:

• Non Bio Laundry Liquid – contains no optical brighteners, quick and complete biodegradability. The bottle can be refilled up to 50 times before recycling it, thus reducing household waste. Just take your bottle to your nearest health food store to be refilled.
• Biological Washing Powder – no optical brighteners and quick and complete biodegradability. The packaging is made of 97% recycled cardboard.
• Stain Remover – plant based ingredients and quick and complete biodegradability. The packaging is 100% recyclable.
• Biological Washing Tablets – no optical brighteners and quick and easy biodegradability. The packaging is made of 95% recycled cardboard.

Faith In Nature

This is another company, which supplies more environmentally friendly cleaning and washing products, and they are based in the United Kingdom. Their products contain natural ingredients, herbal extracts and organic material and all products are BUAV approved [3].

• Clear Spring Laundry Liquid – this is effective at low temperatures and it has a neutral pH. It is paraben and preservative free and contains no enzymes or bleach.

EcoBalls 1,000

This is a laundry kit, which contains three ecoballs in each box. The balls contain pellets made of mineral salts, which produce ionized oxygen, helping to remove dirt from the clothes. One kit lasts up to 1,000 washes and as there is less detergent to wash out, the wash cycle can be shorter and run at a lower temperature.

The consumer website, ‘Which’ [4] discusses the effectiveness of laundry balls in general and they do suggest that to remove tougher stains, the ecoballs should be combined with stain removers and that on fatty stains a stain remover is a must.

Alternative Methods

Aside from using more environmentally friendly washing detergents, there are actually several simple natural ingredients that you yourself can make or do at home to use as washing detergent.

• Instead of using bleach to brighten your clothes and adding a little more power to your wash you could try adding ½ cup of lemon juice to the rinse cycle. This also helps to make the clothes smell fresher when they come out of the wash. You could also try adding ½ cup of baking soda [2].
• Make your own washing powder – using vegetable oil based unscented soap, washing soda crystals and essential oil [5].
  • Bring a pint of water to the boil and grate the bar of soap into the water once it has boiled.
  • Once all the soap has dissolved, add 250 mls of washing soda crystals and 20 drops of the essential oil.

References

[1] Energy Saving Trust (2010) [Online]. Available from www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Resources/Features/Features-archive/Save-money-on-your-laundry

[2] Green Living Tips (2010) [Online]. Available from www.greenliving.com

[3] Green Choices (2010) [Online]. Available from www.greenchoices.org/index.php

[4] Which (2010) [Online]. Available from www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/laundry-liquid/eco-friendly-laundry-choices/index.jsp

[5] Make Your Own Washing Powder & Fabric Conditioner (2010) [Online]. Available from www.makeyourown.co.uk/make-your-own-washing-powder-and-fabric-conditioner.html