Sustainable Living Tips: Laundry Edition!

Doing your laundry in an eco-friendly manner not only protects the environment, it also significantly extends the life of all of your clothes, towels, and bedding. Have you ever encountered a piece of clothing that has tiny bunched up beads of balled-up fabric all over it? This is called pilling and is typically the result of washing and drying certain fabrics on too high of heat and not on gentle cycles. Or, have you ever noticed that your favorite whites all of a sudden tear into shreds after just a year or two of washing? This is because chlorine bleach deteriorates the integrity of fabrics. I don’t know about you, but if chlorine chews through textile fibers, I definitely don’t want bleached fabrics touching my skin. The following is a list of eco-friendly laundry tips that are a win-win-win for you, the life of your laundry, and the environment!

1.) Use chlorine-free bleach. Needless to say, chlorine bleach is a very harsh chemical. When chlorine bleach enters waterways, it can form dioxins, which are carcinogens and some of the most toxic chemicals ever made by man. Dioxins can cause serious harm to aquatic life, wildlife, and humans, including cancer, reproductive and sexual harm, diabetes, organ toxicity, and suppression of the immune system.(1) Furthermore, when chlorine bleach enters the atmosphere as a gas, it is responsible for ozone depletion.(2)

We use chlorine-free bleach in normal laundry loads, as well as for getting stains out of any color of fabric. If you have any tough stains on your bedding or towels, dilute chlorine-free bleach in a ratio of 3 parts water to 1 part chlorine-free bleach. Then liberally douse the stain(s) in the diluted chlorine-free bleach and allow it to sit for at least 30 minutes. Then wash as normal. This trick works best if the stain is caught and treated early.

2.) Apply hydrogen peroxide to tougher stains. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen and is therefore a very eco-friendly alternative to chlorine bleach. Chlorine-free bleach is essentially hydrogen peroxide, but this method is a bit more helpful than the soak method for smaller, tougher stains. With this said, hydrogen peroxide works in an entirely different way than chlorine. Instead of chemically removing stains, hydrogen peroxide works to “lift” the stains out of the fabric so that they can then be washed away. Dab stains thoroughly with hydrogen peroxide and then massage the area of the fabric to help lift the stain out. Let the fabric sit for at least 15 minutes and then wash as normal.

3.) Use biobased, nontoxic detergent. We recommend using bio-based detergent like the one from Dirty Labs®. Biobased detergents use nontoxic enzymes derived from plants rather than harsh chemicals to, once again, “lift” stains from your laundry rather than chemically “chewing” them out of your laundry. However, like chlorine-free bleach, biobased detergents work differently from conventional laundry detergents – they work better in lukewarm to cool water, which brings us to our next tip…

4.) Use low heat, gentle cycles for washing and drying. To prevent pilling and wear-and-tear on your fabrics, wash and dry on gentle cycles and low heat. Low or no heat is always better for the environment because it does not require as much energy (i.e. emissions). Also very important, bio-based or enzyme-based detergents work best in cool to lukewarm water (NOT hot). So using cool to lukewarm water increases the efficacy of biobased detergents, while also lowering your emissions and extending the life of all of your laundry.

5.) Use wool dryer balls and pause large loads to clear the lint filter and re-arrange what’s inside. Wool dryer balls tumble within the folds of your laundry, creating space between them, which allows more airflow and, therefore, more efficient drying of your laundry. Even if you use wool dryer balls, we still recommend pausing large loads (i.e. bed sheets and comforters) halfway, re-arranging them in the dryer, removing the lint from the filter, and then resuming the cycle. This helps prevent lingering wet spots and having to run additional cycles for large items or loads, which of course leads to more energy consumption.

6.) Use a natural, homemade laundry booster. If you need a natural remedy for stinky clothes, make a simple, natural, nontoxic laundry booster! Our recipe is 2 cups Epsom Salts, 1 Cup Baking Soda, and a total of 30 to 35 drops of essential oils in any combination of your choice. We personally prefer citrus oils for our towels and main laundry and lavender for our bedding, but there are tons of others that smell great. Put all ingredients into a large container, close the lid and shake vigorously until thoroughly combined. Use 2 to 3 Tbs per load, depending on the size of the load and the level of the stink.

There are many more eco-friendly laundry tips, bio-based brands, and homemade laundry tricks out there, so we encourage you to go down that internet wormhole! As always, thank you sincerely for reading. We wish you all the best on your path to sustainable living, as we continue on our own!

(1) A Bulletin from Greenpeace. “Dioxin: From Cradle to Grave.” https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/wp-content/uploads/legacy/Global/usa/report/2009/4/dioxin-from-cradle-to-grave.pdf

(2) United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Basic Ozone Layer Science.” October 7th, 2021. https://www.epa.gov/ozone-layer-protection/basic-ozone-layer-science