There are many ways in which how you do the laundry can have negative impacts on our environment. These include not only whether your laundry detergent comes in a plastic container, but also the emissions created during washing and drying as well as the chemicals and fibers released into the water during the process. I will focus on the emissions and chemicals in this article and leave the clothing aspect to a future article.
Emissions
According to a recent study, the U.S. residential sector contributes about 20% of total national carbon dioxide emissions (Goldstein et al. 2020), a large percentage of which comes from activities related to the laundry cycle (water supply, conveyance, heating the water, washing clothes, drying clothes, and treatment and discharge of wastewater). This means that just by making a few simple changes to our routine laundry behaviors, we can have a singificant impact on carbon emissions. Water heating, for example, was found to consume about 16% of the total energy used during a laundry cycle (Golden et al. 2010). We can therefore make a sizeable cut in our contribution to emissions just by using cold water.
Detergent
In addition to energy use, another area of concern relates to the chemicals present in the detergent. Special consideration should be taken here since not all of the detergent is ever completely rinsed out of your clothes and so can come into direct contact with your skin; chemicals from this residual detergent can make their way into our bodies through our skin, nose, and mouth. These harmful chemicals will also be released into the environment through our wastewater following each washing and will need to be treated afterwards, thus increasing environmental harm and emissions. Therefore, a laundry detergent that minimizes the number and amount of harmful chemicals is preferred.
Which detergent should I choose?
My wife and I initially decided to go with any detergent that says "Free and Clear" because that apparently means that all harmful chemicals related to the color and scent of the detergent have been removed. In most cases, this is not true; in fact, additional chemicals may be added to mask the scent or to make the detergent appear clear. This is especially problematic because, for some reason, the companies who manufacture these detergents are not required to disclose all ingredients. So what is the solution?
Solutions related to using magnets in lieu of detergents have been proposed. I am not completely up on the effectiveness of or the science behind using magnets for such a purpose or if there are potentially other negative issues here; I do know that there is still a lot of controversy as to whether magnets actually work. Other solutions include non-liquid laundry sheets, pods, and tablets, but even these can have detrimental impacts on the environment.
A great option for comparing the safety and environmental friendliness of various cleaning (as well as other household) products is the website of the non-profit organization Environmental Working Group (EWG). The EWG provides a rating system that is based on a number of factors (e.g. asthma, skin allergies, reproductive toxicity, cancer, and the environment) for a myriad of different types of products including laundry detergent. Ratings range from the highest ratingZ of "Verified" down to an "F". AspenClean and Attitude are two of the only laundry detergents that received EWG's "Verified" rating. Blueland and Seventh Generation also provide non-plastic and fragrance-free options in the form of detergent tablets, which are rated as "Verified" and "A," respectively. Other non-plastic options that are commonly used are laundry detergent powder, pods, and sheets. AspenClean provides pods that according to EWG have no negative environmental or health impacts, and have therefore received the "Verified" rating. Earth Breeze sells one of the highest rated detergent sheets, though at a rating of "C" they are considerably less environmentally friendly that the other options mentioned above.
Objective
Your objective is to go to the EWG website using the link above to determine the environmental and health grade given to the laundry detergent, sheets, pods, or tablets that you use. In addition to using cold water to wash your clothes, please consider changing to a non-plastic product that has been given a "Verified" or "A" grade.
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