How to Make Your Laundry Routine Zero Waste
Laundry is one of those tasks that doesn’t disappear with a different mindset — though it would be great if it did. It has to be done, so the only solution is to change the how. There are ways that you can achieve a more zero waste and eco-friendlier process by ditching those items that only serve to damage the environment and replacing them with reusable alternatives that will save you time and money. Adopting even just a few of these changes will make a huge difference to the environmental impact our laundry routines cause each year.
Soapnuts
A completely natural shift away from chemical-laden laundry detergent in plastic bottles, soapnuts are organic and grow on trees — the ultimate green product. Soapnuts produce saponin, a natural surfactant, that cleans at all temperatures and can be used to clean your clothes effectively. To use them, you simply pop between five and eight of the soapnuts into the small muslin bag that comes with them, throw it in with your clothes and wash as normal. They can be reused several times before you retire them to the compost heap.
It’s so mild that it can even be put on your garden to no ill effect of your plants. Washing machines use around 50 litres of water for each wash, so this is a great way to cut back on that waste — because there’s no soapy residue, you can use a shorter rinse or skip it altogether. There’s no scent to your clothes after washing, despite the slight vinegary odour the soapnuts have when they go into the machine, but if you prefer your washing to smell of something you can just add some essential oils to the muslin bag before you pop it in the wash or use a fragranced linen water.
Guppyfriend
Every time you wash your clothes, countless plastic fibres from synthetic materials enter the waste water and find their way into rivers and oceans. Once there, these microfibres harbour bacteria and pollutants which are consumed by marine life and aquatic organisms, resulting in gastrointestinal infections, blockages, reproductive issues and starvation. These issues in themselves are harmful enough, but the impact this could have on the food chain could be catastrophic. It’s thought that a city the size of Berlin produces a volume of microfibres through washing that’s equivalent to around 500,000 plastic bags every day.
Using a Guppyfriend washing bag helps to filter out even the smallest of these fibres released from our clothing during a wash and the self-cleaning fabric is able to collect the fibres, so they can be disposed of properly once the wash cycle is finished. It’s made primarily (everything excluding the zip) from a material known as Polyamide 6.6, an untreated and undyed fabric that is so pure it can even be used for medical needs. The brand even requests that you send your Guppyfriend back to them at the end of its lifecycle, so it can be recycled for a more cyclical process.
Dryer Balls
Dryer balls are an excellent way to skip wasteful dryer sheets and can significantly cut back on drying time, saving you money on electricity and helping the planet. They help to soften your clothes too and reduce static, to make ironing easier and your clothes dryer more quickly. Wool dryer balls are the most common but if you’re looking for a vegan-friendly option, there are plastic and rubber versions too which you can use for years at a time to cut down on electricity and soften textiles without the need for dryer sheets.
Bicarbonate of Soda
Stain removers are packed with toxic chemicals which enter the waterways during the washing cycle, so finding a greener alternative is preferable. Bicarbonate of soda, or soda crystals, does the job much of the time and it’s likely to be an ingredient you already have on hand anyway. Making a paste with bicarbonate and water is very easy to do and it can be used to pre-treat stains before you wash them — just leave it to sit for a few hours before washing it as normal. And as an added bonus, this everyday ingredient also fights odours too.
Cold Water
We instinctively wash our clothing on the highest temperature, under the misconception that it’s the only way to thoroughly clean them, but this could be damaging your clothes prematurely and is definitely costing you more in energy. Cooler washes do just as good of a job as hot washes when it comes to cleaning your clothes and will help to lessen the energy expenditure of your laundry cycles. Save the hot washes for items that are really soiled or to kill off germs — for everything else, cold washes are all that’s needed.
Originally published at wordmoth.com on August 31, 2018.
