How to be more eco friendly when washing your clothes

An eco-friendly laundry room with a washing machine for washing clothes.

We can all do our part to protect the environment and look after the earth and it doesn’t need to involve buying a Tesla or living off-grid. Here are some tips to help you be more eco friendly by just doing the mundane task of washing your clothes. 

Wash less often

Some people have been trained to think that if they wear something once, it needs to be washed. Not so! If your clothes look and smell clean then go ahead with another wash cycle for an even longer period of time before putting them away in order to save water/energy (both yours as well as the electrical kind). Run only full loads because the larger capacity on high-efficiency washers will allow you to do fewer loads every day which means more sustainability overall.

Wash at a lower temperature

A study shows that by avoiding hot water, you can cut your energy costs and carbon emissions. The best way to do this? Choose cold! Your clothes will be cleaner with no wasted time or money spent on heating the water up. Research seems to indicate switching from using heated domestic tap water while doing laundry may help out both budget-minded homeowners and the environment.

Use eco-friendly products

The only thing better than a clean, stain-free home is one without any of those icky chemicals. Luckily there’s an abundance of natural alternatives for your laundry room – from plant-based detergents to oxygen-based brighteners. White vinegar makes an excellent fabric softener and even removes tough stains like coffee or blood spills on clothing.

Dry naturally

Clothes dryers are second only to refrigerators when it comes to household energy use, so cutting back on drying will reduce your home’s carbon footprint. Line-dry clothes if you can for even longer life and fabric protection which helps fight against moths. Drying clothes outside with a clothesline or airer or just as good alternative. This can be a challenge in the winter but if you have a spare room that is well ventilated your clothes will dry quickly enough.

Wear natural fibres

When we launder synthetic fibres like polyester fleece, acrylics and nylon they all wash away with the rinse water. And if those microscopic pieces of plastic are absorbed by marine life or ingested by animals it can be bad for them and the food chain. You could help solve this problem by choosing organic cotton clothing from now on- especially when you think about how humans might be affected, because not only do these types of plastics pose danger but so does their ingestion into our food supply chain which has been linked back to human health problems.

Newer washing machines, generally, are also far more energy-efficient. If your washer is due an upgrade check out the great range of washing machines at www.euronics.co.uk

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