Laundry hangs on a clothesline in Procida, Italy. Air-drying is known as a cheap, environmentally friendly way to dry clothes, but other green options may be a surprise. (Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff)
Heat up that iron: a guide to ecofriendly clothing care
Because 60 percent of the energy use on clothing is tied to its care, how you clean your clothes matters more to the environment than what they’re made of.
By Yvonne Zipp | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor/ October 2, 2008 edition
Even if a person’s closet doesn’t contain a single item made of organic or recycled fabric, she can still help the environment – without heading to the store.
That’s because “more energy goes into caring for and cleaning a garment than [making] it,” says Todd Copeland of Patagonia, which specializes in ecofriendly outdoor clothing.
In fact, about 60 percent of the energy use associated with a piece of clothing comes from cleaning it, according to a 2006 University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing study.
Greener options can be as simple as switching to an environmentally friendly detergent, washing in cold water (which can save you $65 a year and cut your washer’s energy use by 75 percent), and skipping the fabric-softener sheets. Spending extra time on the laundry means greater energy savings and, often, cost savings as well.
Air-drying is the cheapest and most environmentally friendly way to dry clothes. It’s not effort-free, and clotheslines may not be an option if you live in an apartment or a neighborhood where they’re against regulations. But there are ways to work around that.
Kristi Wiedemann of GreenerChoices.org, for example, uses a drying rack for her clothes.
For her part, Rachel Sarnoff of EcoStiletto – an online magazine about sustainable fashion, beauty, lifestyle, and parenting – hand washes her garments that are labeled dry clean-only. (She says she did ruin a rayon garment, but so far, nothing made of natural fibers.)
However, the Los Angeles mother of three isn’t up for long sessions with her iron, so she says she buys only things that will look good coming off the drying rack.
If your budget has room for a new appliance, a dryer with an automatic sensor can cut energy costs significantly, ultimately paying for itself, says Pat Slaven of Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine. “It’s a great way for consumers to save energy without even trying.”
The California Energy Commission estimates that an iron, turned on once a week for an hour, will use approximately 52 kWh of energy per year. A clothes dryer uses somewhere between 900 and 950 kWh, so even if you have to touch up some of your garments, the energy savings are substantial.
Ms. Slaven also warns that, because front-loading washers spin so much faster than top loaders (allowing them to use less water), those owners will be spending more time with an iron, smoothing out the creases in natural fibers that set in during the wash.
On the other hand, “With a top loader and polyester, the wrinkles are literally going to fall out of [clothes],” she says.
But for those living in areas where conserving water is a big concern, she adds, a front-loading washer is absolutely the best choice.
When Nau, a sustainable clothing company based in Oregon, began, “One of the things we challenged ourselves with was the cleaning of the garment,” says Jamie Bainbridge. “We took the garments we wanted to make and tried washing them at home. We didn’t make any garments that couldn’t be hand washed in your bathtub at home.”
But, she acknowledges, it may take time for younger consumers to get used to pulling out the Woolite. “Consumers have lost the fine art of hand washing [clothes]. If you talk to most people getting out of college, they screw up their face and say, ‘What?’ ”
Editor’s note: The original version of this article misspelled the name of EcoStiletto. Another article about the environmental impact of clothing choices – “Before you buy those organic bluejeans” – appeared in the Monitor on Monday,
Sept. 29.
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Comments
2. Barbara van A. | 10.03.08
I have hung up my clothes forever. In the warmer months I hang them up outside, which makes them smell wonderful–especially sheets. This time of year my semi-retired husband brings them in before I get home at 5:30 pm. In colder months, or during a rainy spell, they dry indoors. Fortunately we have a dry basement. I try not to buy any items that needs ironing–tablecloths and napkins included. But some shirts, trousers etc. do get wrinkly on the line, so these I dry in the drier, removing them immediately after the sensor stops the drying, because I hate ironing and do it only rarely. I also buy very little that needs dry cleaning. I am a senior citizen who still works bull time, so if I can do it, most people can.
3. Isanova | 10.03.08
I have been interested in hand-washing, but for the life of me I have never heard or found any explaination of how to do it safely. I want to make sure my clothes are clean, and I just am not sure I could do that in a bathtub or wash tub. I also do not want to use woolite, prefering organic/natural cleaning solutions (and washing soda isn’t so gentle on the bare hands)
4. Sharon | 10.03.08
A great laundry concentrate I’ve used for a few years now can be gotten here: http://www.sweetgrassonline.com/. You only use a couple of tablespoons per load so an 8 lb. bag lasts a long time. Scent is very light on the lavender version–haven’t tried the others. As for using for handwash and it being rough on hands, try agitating with a plunger. A salad spinner works great for small items as a wringer.
5. David Rawlins | 10.03.08
With recent reports on dubious elements in various cleaning agents I have switched over to Planet products. As for clothes, I put them in a plastic bucket covered with water and Planet liquid laundry detergent: coconut oil based, no added dyes or fragrances, certified biodegradable, not tested on animals, 100% phosphate free. I use a small plunger to agitate the items and then I let them soak for a while, up to a day. For scrubbing items I make use of a small washboard. We have quite a few Mexican workers arond here so the stores carry these washboards. Talk about sustainable; this system will last indefinitely. Should the plastic bucket crack or spring a leak they can always be obtained at fast food outlets for free. We hike a lot on these dusty trails. A brief session with the washboard brings socks back to acceptable. My lady recently bit the bullet. After a standard washing machine sprang a leak she bought a non-electric, hand washing machine with wringer used by the Amish. Here in Southern California we make regular use of our sustainable solar dryer: a line in the sun.
6. LowlyWise | 10.04.08
I don’t hand wash anything larger than a brassiere, and in fact non-cotton underwear lasts better if it is hand washed. Cotton which gets too soggy. I too deplore artificially scented soaps, but I use a few drops of Dr Bronner’s mint castile soap, or liquid BioKleen, or the Ecover product designed to be the equivalent of Woolite.
I wish you had elaborated on dryer sheets: without them clothes come out full of static electricity. However, I tear them in halves or thirds, which doesn’t gum up the dryer and makes a box last forever. The used pieces can be dipped in the rinse water when you’re doing the underwear and hosiery.
For the first time in several years I’m now able to hang up clothes. Although many fabrics are engineered to be dried in the dryer only, when they’ve been washed a few times they hang up well. All summer I washed sheets about every five days, just because they smell so good and feel so soft after hanging in the sun half the day.
7. Silvia Wilson, from S.Korea | 10.06.08
If you can’t find hand washing soap, use shampoo or soap made for washing your hands. Both work well for me. If you feel you must use washing soda, wear rubber gloves. I always air dry, outside mostly. I bring my drying rack inside only when it is freezing.
8. edie moro | 10.06.08
For static cling, try this “secretary’s trick”: rub your hands lightly with your favorite hand cream (I imagine a little olive oil or almond oil would work for purists), then stroke your static-y clothes lightly.End of static cling.
9. Dave | 10.07.08
I find when I hang things up to dry that they get very stiff. Would an extra rinse help or is this just a waste of water? Is it hard water, such that Calgon or something similar would help? I live in a very humid climate (Houston) where clothes dry very slowly, despite having a front-loading washer that spins out most of the water.
10. Corey | 10.18.08
Everybody knows about clotheslines and drying racks, but hardly anybody in the USA knows about spin dryers. Spin dryers use a small fraction of the energy that tumble dryers do, and are gentler on the clothes allowing them to last longer. Spin dryers can be used in damp/rainy weather, in places where line drying is prohibited, and even by people who find hanging clothes out to be too much work. More information is available at:
http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm
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1. trudy | 10.03.08
Unfortunately, the Woolite people have done away with the old style Woolite, which was unscented. The Woolite that is now labeled “original” is in fact a later, scented product.
If anyone knows of an unscented substitute, I’d appreciate their posting it here, thanks.