Green Laundry: Small, But Firm Steps To Save Earth

The more you save earth, the more you nurture it. Every tiny step counts when it comes to saving earth and adopting eco-friendly ways to life. Laundry is no exception and making this process as green as possible can actually save a lot of resources. Electricity, waste, water and chemicals there are a lot of things involved. Minimize all resource wasting steps while laundering and you can definitely help preserve environment. Make your laundry more eco-friendly by implementing points given below. Try them next time you wash clothes.

1. Check Temperature Regulation. While setting washing machine’s temperature keep in mind that too much electricity is consume during this process. Ideally, it is important to give clothes a hot water wash and this makes. But using hot water for a wash cycle means you will be consuming double electricity. However, you can always keep high temperatures for dirtiest of the loads. Lighter, frequently used and less dirty clothes can be washed with cold water.

2. Pre-wash Stained Clothes. Stained or heavily soiled clothes can be pre-washed before they are put into wash cycle. This will make them cleaner by using lesser resources in a washing machine. Besides, you will also save other clothes from getting dirty by doing this.

3. Wash Full Load Often. Speaking in terms of energy and water efficiency a full load is recommended. Often people run wash cycles for half loads which wastes a lot of resources. You should set a fixed date for laundry and wait until you have a full load to wash. If you are going for half or lesser loads then it is wise to adjust the machine setting accordingly. Washers equipped with water return system can return used water that can be utilized or reused suitably.

4. Prefer Air & Sun Drying. Dryers should be used only when they are really needed. Use nature’s power in form of air and solar heat to dry clothes. There are many therapeutic and health benefits associated with air and sun drying clothes. While the sun disinfects clothes, the air bushes through the clothes to give natural aroma to clothes. Sun kissed clothes are crisp and last longer. Dryers usually cause fabric strength to weaken and forms wrinkles in clothes. In addition Sun naturally dries clothes helping clothes to stay sturdy and wrinkle free.

5. Detergents, Fabric Sanitizer & Others. Using conventional, chemical induced detergents can be a big problem for environment, clothes and for you. Wondering how? We’ll, chemicals seep into the aquatic system through drains and spoil the ecosystem there. Harsh detergents pose grave harm for your skin causing allergies, skin infections and rashes. Is there a solution? Surely, to begin with:

• Seek solution in nature by using alternatives like soap nuts. These are seeds from certain plant that forms a soapy solution once it is mixed with water. Using vinegar in the rise cycle can not only remove stains but render clothes soft and residue free. Tea Tree oil used in rise cycle disinfects clothes and leaves them fresh and aromatic.
• Using concentrated detergent reduces the carbon foot print associated with the packing of detergents. This is because more efficient detergent can be packaged at reduced cost, space and resource usage. Besides using eco friendly detergents, fabric sanitizer and natural laundry disinfectant can save the environment from getting polluted.

6. Hand Wash vs. Washing Machines. This argument only brings out what we have been stressing about eco-friendly laundering. Though hand washing clothes eliminates the need of electricity, but the water wastage doubles up. That is why washing machines come out to be more energy and water efficient. Nowadays HE, i.e. high efficiency washing machines are available that make laundering significantly environmental friendly. They have reduced water usage to 55% – 66% and electricity consumption to 50%. They also reduce drying time by soaking more water from clothes. By using HE washing machines and HE detergents you can get completely clean clothes. This makes modern washing machines more eco- friendly for laundering.

Author Bio: The author is a fitness freak. His passion for writing forces him to write articles. He has been doing this for 2 years. This time he is providing some Eco – Friendly Techniques to disinfect clothes.