Making Laundry Eco-Friendly, Amal Singh, Age 16

THE ISSUE:

• A lot of us tend to take doing laundry for granted, and it does have a negative impact on the environment. I am one of those people who do laundry without considering its impact on the environment. There are many little things we can do to change this. As I’ve already began improving the way I do laundry, I’ve seen many benefits that come from it.

QUICK FACTS:

• About 5.8% of residential electricity is used by clothes dryers
• If all Americans used clotheslines, energy savings would be enough to close several power plants
• Dryers use the most energy in your household out of all appliances
• Average American does 8-10loads of laundry each week
• 3.5% of American consumers have their washer and dryer in their kitchen
• Hand washing certain clothing is said to be more effective than using a washing machine
• One American family uses 16,000 gallons of water a year on average for their washer
• Usually, 90% of energy used by a washing machine is used to heat up the water
• Using Energy Star products can save you about 100$ per year
• The sun is a better stain remover then most detergents
• Cold water is actually better for clothing then hot water, it prevents colours from fading
• The sun treats coloured clothing better than bleaches
• The chemicals from washing end up in the environment and serve as a hazard

MAKING CHANGE:

• I have began to make lots of changes to the way I do my laundry now, these things are: using cold water to wash my clothes, hang drying my clothes on a clothes line, using concentrated and eco-friendly detergents for washing, doing my laundry in the night and on weekends(non-peak times) and lastly, only doing laundry with full loads. These changes were really easy to get accustom to, it just requires a bit more time out of your daily schedules and a certain amount of effort. With the right commitment, anyone can do this.