Sustainability – this is a word that you often read on many product labels and product features. Several products claim they are friendly to the environment, but only some actually commit to this mantra. Nowadays, the trend that is “sustainability” has also reached your laundry areas, with products like a sustainable laundry detergent.
What is sustainability? The United States announced its sustainability commitment through the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which declared that pursuing this lifestyle means creating and maintaining conditions “under which man and nature can exist in productive harmony” to support generations of the present and future.
In other words, sustainability occurs when people and businesses make choices to minimize harm to the environment and ensure the planet is livable today and in the future. Some examples of sustainable living include choosing renewable energy, incorporating recycled or reclaimed materials, establishing limits on the usage of resources, and replacing or offsetting resources used to transport or create a product. Now that you have learned what sustainability is, let us move over to how this sustainability meets your laundry practices.
Ways To Start Your Eco-Friendly Laundry Routine
Are you looking to implement eco-conscious changes in your home? Did you know your laundry routine is a great place you can start? Not only will adopting eco-friendly laundry habits can significantly reduce your carbon footprint, but it will also save on your expenditures, and have less wear and tear to your clothing, making them last longer.
We have searched for articles that talk about expert insights on this, and we are more than glad to share these with you. Here are seven ways how you can kick off your environmentally-friendly laundry routine.
1. Use Cold Water As Much As Possible
When you turn on the washing machine you use, its default settings are usually a hot water cycle. Water heating alone usually accounts for up to 90 percent of the energy required to run a cycle. Among the easiest ways to be more environmentally conscious when doing the laundry is to opt for cold water instead. Not only will this save and conserve energy, but you will also lower your electricity bill.
2. Opt For An Eco-Friendly Detergent Or Sustainable Laundry Detergent
A good laundry detergent is your key to fresher and cleaner clothes. However, it is also true that many laundry detergents sold in stores today contain harmful chemicals. These include ingredients such as dyes, phosphates, chlorine, harsh enzymes like cellulase, and so much more. Not only are these harmful to the planet or the environment, but they will also tend to irritate the skin and damage your dresses.
So the next time you will shop for a laundry detergent, choose a more eco-friendly variant. You do not have to worry about their effectiveness because they will also leave your clothes entirely clean and odor-free. Plus, you will never need to think about chemicals harming your clothes and your skin.
3. Air-Dry These Clothes
The hot summer season is the best time to air-dry your clothes and linens instead of running them in your dryer. Not only this, but retractable clotheslines are also very affordable, and you can set these up between trees, on a small balcony, or your deck, among many other places. This approach is also considered more sustainable and leaves your clothes smelling so fresh. Plus, the sun also helps bleach out those stubborn stains. If you do not have ample outdoor space, you can use a drying rack to dry clothes indoors, and they are a must-have for the more delicate garments.
4. Start Investing In Dryer Balls
Another perfectly sustainable way of doing your laundry is investing in dryer balls. When you need to use your dryer, you could cut down its runtime through the help of reusable dryer balls. These wool balls will help absorb moisture from the clothing, which means you can place the dryer on a lower heat setting so you can significantly reduce the overall drying time. These dryer balls also help reduce wrinkles on your clothes and soften them as an added bonus.
5. Only Run Full Loads
The United States Environmental Protection Agency stated that a full-size traditional washing machine utilizes an estimated 20 gallons of water per load. Meanwhile, ENERGY STAR-certified washers use around 14 gallons. But beyond this, no matter which type of washer you use, there are still a lot of water consumed even if you are only washing a few garments.
In addition, inevitably, there will be instances when you need certain clothing washed before you have a full load. However, as a rule of thumb, try only to run your washing machine when it is full. Basically, this means doing less laundry.
You may need to invest in laundry gadgets like portable wash bags and clothes washing wands if you only need to wash one or two garments.
6. Wash Your Clothes When They Are Actually Dirty
In other words, this means learning to wear used clothes again, especially if they are only used for a few hours.
Washing lightly worn clothing brings about more laundry and definitely more work than necessary, so you need to be more conscious about how often you are cleaning particular items. For instance, according to the American Cleaning Institute, pajamas and jeans may be worn up to four times before you actually wash them.
When in doubt, check if the clothing has any visible stains or smells terrible already. In both cases, all it needs is a spot-stain removal or quick steam to keep these items fresh between wearing and washing them.
7. Skip Using The Chlorine Bleach
Bleach might be most individuals’ go-to when they need to remove tough stains but know that this chemical is harsh on the environment. As much as possible, consider using alternative ways to treat these stains. Skip using the chlorine bleach.
Tru Earth Laundry Eco-Strips: Sustainability At Its Finest
You learned previously in the ways how you can start your eco-friendly laundry routine that you need to choose an eco-friendly laundry detergent. Well, not all laundry detergents are created equal, and do not be surprised if we tell you there are only a few eco-friendly and sustainable laundry detergents out there on the market. One of them is Tru Earth Laundry Eco-Strips. We are going to introduce this to you as our conclusion to this piece and encourage you to try this today.
Each laundry strip of Tru Earth Laundry Eco-Trips packs hypoallergenic, ultra-concentrated, and eco-friendly cleaning power into a small, pre-measured strip of liquidless detergent for your laundry that you simply toss in your wash. It has a low-sudsing formula that works with various types of washing machines, including the high-efficiency ones.
This smart hypoallergenic laundry detergent formula effectively seeks out and dislodges stains and dirt molecules, keeping them suspended until they will be rinsed away. This makes your laundry chore a whole lot easier, healthier, more economical, and more friendly to Mother Earth.
Among the other characteristics of Tru Earth Laundry Eco-Trips include being paraben-free, phosphate-free, free of added dyes, free of chlorine bleach, and hypoallergenic, among many others.
When you think about doing your next laundry, consider choosing the sustainable track. You can do this with Tru Earth Laundry Eco-Trips. Shop this right now.