Ahhh. Laundry Day. Who doesn't love the smell of clean sheets or your favorite, freshly laundered sweatshirt?
In the age of shelter-in-place, now is an important time to keep our living environments healthy and comfortable.
Choosing environmentally friendly products--or creating your own-- are an essential way of ensuring that your laundry products won't harm you or our planet. Conventional laundry detergents contain harmful ingredients that don't completely biodegrade and have been known to contaminate our waterways with heavy metals. Plus, some of the chemicals within these detergents can be hazardous to your health--read more about that here.
So, we thought it would be the perfect time to share some hacks for making your Laundry Day more sustainable. Let's go!
1.) Make Your Own Powder or Liquid Detergent.
If you're a true beginner to all of this, I recommend Wasteland Rebel's 7-minute Zero Waste Laundry Detergent recipe. All the ingredients to make it come in sustainable packaging and can be purchased on Amazon. For more experienced DIY-ers, try Wellness Mama's Liquid and Powder Detergent recipes that offer a more powerful clean but take a little longer to produce. Plus, making your own can come with major cost-saving benefits. Check out this cost-analysis by Kale + Compass.
2.) Wash in Cold Water
Washing your clothes in cold water is a great way to reduce your environmental impact and save money. Washing 4 out of 5 laundry loads in cold water has the potential to save 842 pounds of CO2 emissions per year, and some folks say it actually works better for removing difficult stains.
3.) Line Dry
If you have the option of line-drying your clothes, do it! Especially if you're working from home these days, now is a great time to give line-drying a try. This tactic not only saves energy but also makes your clothes last longer. Bonus sustainability points, there! Plus, you'll love the earthy and fresh smell your laundry gets from being outdoors. P.S. If you do use a dryer, swap dryer sheets for reusable wool dryer balls and clean your lint filter often to help keep fabric particles out of our waterways.
4.) Choose an eco-friendly detergent.
While most store-bought detergents come in plastic and would require a trip to the store to obtain them, choosing an environmentally safe detergent--as defined by EPA standards--is still a far better option than conventional detergents. Use this great tool on the EPA website to find out if your favorite brand is eco-friendly.
These simple swaps can help you reduce your environmental impact and even provide a fun, weeknight activity if you choose to make your own products.
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