Eco Laundry
When it comes to reducing the plastic waste created in your laundry rooms, there are plenty of options.
Plastic liquid detergent jugs
The majority of liquid laundry detergent is shipped in large plastic jugs. Most of the volume and weight of these plastic jugs is actually water - between 60 and 90 per cent in fact. This is utterly pointless, as well as expensive and inefficient to transport around the country. Turns out, the main reason large plastic jugs of detergent exist is marketing - they are highly visible and stand out well on supermarket shelves.An estimated 900 million plastic laundry jugs are thrown away every year in the United States alone, and only about 30% of these are recycled. That's around 600 million plastic jugs being tossed into landfills, or the ocean, every year! As well as polluting the environment through their fossil fuel-based production, these plastic jugs can take up to 500 years to decompose - especially if buried deep in a landfill. They will break down more quickly if exposed to sunlight, but in doing so they leach toxic chemicals into the environment and generate microplastics, which contaminate soils and waterways, harm land and marine life and ultimately end up in the food you eat.
Eco friendly laundry alternatives
- Look for eco friendly packaging which is recyclable and biodegradable.
- Consider concentrated detergents - you don't even need to add the water, your washing machine does that for you.
- Explore dissolvable laundry sheets and tablets which reduce waste as well as transport costs and pollution.
- Try some of the growing number of refill stations to reduce packaging waste completely.
Other eco friendly considerations
A single load of laundry can release hundreds of thousands to millions of microscopic plastic fibers into our waterways. There are lots of factors involved - fabric type and condition is one of the main ones, but water temperature, the length of the wash cycle and the type of detergent being used, are others. Top loading washing machines generally agitate clothes more aggressively, which means more microplastics being produced.
Ways to minimize laundry microplastics
- Avoid fast fashion clothing - choose longer lasting natural fibers wherever possible - such as cotton, wool and linen.
- Wash clothes less frequently - as in, when actually dirty - and on cold water and gentle wash cycles.
- Load your washing machine fully - this reduces friction between clothes and minimizes fiber release.
- Use a microfiber filter to capture microplastics - there are external options, like the PlanetCare microfiber filter, and ones you put into the machine machine, like Cora Ball, and Guppyfriend.
Improving dryer efficiency
A final eco friendly consideration is to use dryer balls in your clothes drying machines - they can increase the efficiency of your clothes dryers, while reducing the need for dryer sheets and fabric softeners.
