Laundry
Dryers:
There are two main types of dryers on the market today electric and gas operated dryer’s. We will look at electric dryers due to their increased environmental sustainability compared to gas dryers. Dryers are composed of three main parts and a housing. These consist of a rotating Tumblr( where you put your laundry), A electric powered heater and an exhaust vent. These main components are placed in a housing with controls for temperature, duration of drying time and are located on the top of the machine. Dryers work by heating the air and having it pass over the clothes as they tumble. The remaining water left in your laundry is turned to steam as it is heated and leaves your laundry and passes outside through the exhaust vent. Dryers use a lot of energy to turn the cold water left in your laundry into steam that evaporates and leaves your laundry warm and dry. Dryers undergo various steps on the way to becoming a dryer. First or is extracted from earth's crust and made into sheet metal. The sheet-metal is then shipped to the dryer manufacture where it undergoes it’s construction process. The sheet-metal is cut and bent to form the different parts and pieces. These are usually made with industrial presses that can stamp out high quantities of parts in it quick manner (TRR 56, 2010). A dryer can consume as much as 6000 W of electricity to dry one load of laundry. Most dryers undergo the same processes when being built leading to very similar environmental impacts in the construction phase. The big difference in environmental impacts are the users drying practices and how they use it. In order to minimize the environmental impact of a dryer here are a few simple tips. It is important to only dry your laundry until it is dry, and not just set the timer for an hour or longer. By checking the dryness of your clothes periodically through the drying process you will learn most laundry is dry and ready to be taken out long before the dryer stops. Making sure your lint filter is not clogged each and every use can reduce your dryers runtime by 30% (Yates & Evans, 2016). If there is a lint clogging the vent it takes longer for the water vapors And steam to be sucked through the vent and blown out side. Doing separate loads of heavier in light items can maximize the effectiveness of each load. If you mix heavy towels and T-shirts in the same load the T-shirts will be dry much faster and take up room and heat when the towels are still being dried. Whenever possible it is much more environmentally friendly to use a drying rack or clothesline to dry your garments (Woodford, 2017).
Drying Racks:
Drying racks are a great alternative to using a electric dryer. Drying racks come in many different materials as well as sizes. The most sustainable drying racks are locally made racks from wood. These drying racks are not only better for the environment but are also better for the life of your garments. Electric dryers can break down your clothing overtime in the extreme heat and tumbling the process (Yates & Evans 2016). Drying racks allow your garments to air dry thus creating minimal stress on your garments. Wooden racks undergo a simple process starting as a tree and ending up in someone’s home. First the trees harvested and brought to a Sawmill. The wood is then cut and carved into the necessary pieces. These generally consist of 12 same size leg pieces and 10 or so spreader pieces. The legs are then fasten together in the middle making an x, this is repeated three times on each side in a vertical pattern then the spreader pieces are put in place (Patent US 6427858 2000). They connect each side to one another and serve as the shelf for your garments to dry. Wooden racks are the most sustainable in greenest type of drying rack available. Drying racks can last up to 4 times longer than a traditional electric dryer electric dryers generally have an expected life time of 14 years where as a drying rack can last for 50 plus years if taken care of. Next time you do a load of laundry consider lowering your carbon footprint and choose a drying rack instead of a traditional dryer (Yates & Evans 2016).
Seventh Generation Detergent
Seventh generation detergent is typically thought of as a green detergent. This detergent contains cleaning agents and enzymes derived from plants themselves. As mentioned before the bottling or packaging of detergents can make a huge difference on their overall environmental impact (Mukherjee, 2007). Seventh generation took the industry by storm when they came out with a paper recyclable container for their detergent. The container is composed of 70% recycled cardboard and 30% recycled newspaper. Inside this container is a plastic pouch that contains the actual detergent, this too is recyclable (Seventh Generation, 2016).
When you finish your bottle of detergent all components of it may be recycled including the plastic pouch and cardboard container. Seventh generation detergent is composed of these Ingredients: Water, laureth-6 (plant-derived cleaning agent), sodium lauryl sulfate (plant-derived cleaning agent), sodium citrate (plant-derived water softener), glycerin (plant-derived enzyme stabilizer), oleic acid (plant-derived anti-foaming agent), sodium hydroxide (mineral-based pH adjuster), calcium chloride (mineral-based enzyme stabilizer), sodium chloride (mineral-based viscosity modifier), protease, amylase, and mannanase (plant-derived enzyme blend soil removers), and benzisothiazolinone and methylisothiazolinone (synthetic preservatives). Overall seventh generation laundry detergent is the most environmentally friendly detergent we have looked at. It’s sustainable ingredients and packaging earn it the most sustainable and green detergent out there. Seventh generation even has a section of their website devoted to explaining their ingredients and what their environmental impacts are (Seventh Generation, 2017).
Tide Detergent:
There are many things to consider when picking out a laundry detergent. The following information will help you decide what type of detergent to select when trying to minimize the environmental effects. There are three main forms of detergents, deluded liquids, powders, and liquid concentrate (pods) (Frydendall, 2009). Tide detergent is the leading brand in laundry detergent. Tide has been on the market since 1946. Like many companies tied offers liquid, powder, and liquid concentrate types of detergents. The most environmentally friendly type of tide detergent is there liquid concentrate, powdered detergent took a close second and deluded liquids are the least environmentally friendly form of detergent. Tides ingredients are water, alcoholethoxy sulfate, linear alkylbenzene sulfonate, propylene glycol, citric acid, sodium hydroxide,borax, ethanolamine, ethanol, alcohol sulfate, polyethyleneimine ethoxylate, sodium fatty acids, diquaternium ethoxysulfate, protease, diethylene glycol, laureth-9, alkyldimethylamine oxide, fragrance, amylase, disodium diaminostilbene disulfonate, DTPA, sodium formate, calcium formate, polyethylene glycol 4000, mannanase, Liquitint™ Blue, and dimethicone (Tide, 2017). Laundry detergents are not what you may think, they are not soaps at all yet function similar to them. Detergents are actually a synthetic combination of materials. They are composed of builders surfactants which are a combination of hydrocarbons and sulfuric acid and when mixed together create a power detergent (Made How, 2017).
This powder can then be mixed in with chemicals and water to create liquid detergent and liquid concentrate. Regular liquid detergent is the least environmentally friendly option due to the amount of water used to dilute the detergent. It is also packaged in unsustainable plastics. Liquid concentrate would be the most environmentally friendly form of detergent however it’s packaging keeps it from getting this award. Powdered detergent is generally packaged in paper or cardboard and does not undergo any excessive refining processes other than the original powder mixture. Tide detergent comes in many Different options with tide pure clean being the most environmentally friendly option (Tide, 2017).
Washing Machines:
The process of cleaning your laundry is a part of our everyday lives. Whether you own your own home and have a washer and dryer or rent a small apartment and go to a laundromat you most likely do your laundry on a weekly basis. Washing machine have become a necessity for most people in developed countries. The average american's home does 380-400 load of laundry each year. Whether you wash your laundry at home or in a laundromat here are a few simple tips to help lessen the environmental impact of washing your garments (Yates & Evans, 2016). Washing machines have evolved over time with the first ones being hand powered in 1800s.These machines grew in complexity in popularity to modern day examples. When possible it is best to use new energy-efficient machines these will generally have HE (high efficiency) stickers on them theses machines uses less water and clean more efficiently. Older top loading machines can uses as much as 40 gallons of water. New high efficiency machine can use as little as 14 gallons of water and do a better job at cleaning your garments. The amount of water used in washing a load of clothes is the biggest contributor to the unsustainability of washing machines. Using hot or warm water is much worse for the environment that using cold water. The process of heating the water leads to a bigger carbon footprint due to the fact that something has to be burned in order to heat the water witch is bad for the environment (Cullen & Allwood, 2009). Most washing machines are constructed of the same materials and undergo the same processes to become a functioning washer. There are three main parts which make up a washing machine the motor the transmission and the agitator tub. The motor and transmission are located at the bottom of the machine with the agitator placed on top.These pieces are placed in some sort of a housing generally aluminum or stainless steel. Manufacturers fabricate the parts and pieces from raw materials to make the plastics and metal used to fabricate the machines. Most manufacturers construct washing machines in very similar ways using the same products. This makes it extremely hard to determine which washer is more sustainable than the next. When trying to minimise your environmental effects of washing a load of laundry it's important to consider the size of your load, the type of water being used and if possible use a high efficiency washer (Weber & Matthews, 2008).
References:
Cullen, J. M., & Allwood, J. M. (2009, January 31). The Role of Washing Machines in Life Cycle Assessment Studies. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/wol1/doi/10.1111/j.1530-9290.2009.00107.x/full
Frydendall, E. (2009, December 07). How Laundry Detergent Works. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://home.howstuffworks.com/laundry-detergent4.htm
Made How. (2017). Laundry Detergent. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Laundry-Detergent.html
Mukherjee, A. (2007, July 17). Potential application of cyclic lipopeptide biosurfactants produced by Bacillus subtilis strains in laundry detergent formulations. Retrieved November 27, 2017, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-765X.2007.02197.x/full
Patent US6427858 - Laundry drying rack. (n.d.). Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://www.google.com/patents/US6427858
Seventh Generation. (2016, January 25). Bottling Sustainability. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://www.seventhgeneration.com/packaging/bottling-sustainability
Seventh Generation. (2017, November 7). Ingredients Science. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://www.seventhgeneration.com/sustainable-ingredients
Tide. (2017). Sustainability. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from https://tide.com/en-us/about-tide/sustainability
TRR56. (2010, March 22). How it's made clothes dryers [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jd_MxZCWv0
Weber, C. L., & Matthews, H. S. (2008). Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint. Ecological Economics, 66(2-3), 379-391. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.09.021
Woodford, C. (2017, November 05). How clothes dryers work | The science of drying clothes. Retrieved December 08, 2017, from http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-clothes-tumble-dryers-work.html
What We Use
Washer
Maximizing your load of laundry and using cold water is the greenest choice when it comes to washing your laundry since using hot water has a higher carbon footprint (Cullen & Allwood, 2009).
Drying
Drying racks are the most sustainable drying practice due to the simple construction of recyclable and renewable materials mostly hardwood. They also don't use electricity and therefore have a minimum environmental impact compared to electric dryers (Yates & Evans, 2016).
Laundry Detergent
Seventh Generation laundry detergent in liquid concentrate is the best choice when it comes to its environmental impact. Seventh generation detergents contain cleaning agents and enzymes that are derived from plants. There packaging is 100% recyclable it is 70% recycled cardboard and 30% recycled newspaper with only a small recycled plastic pouch inside the container holding the actual detergent (Mukherjee, 2017).