Turn down your washing machine
Heating up the water to wash your smalls takes a large amount of energy. Thankfully, modern detergents can get your clothes sparkling clean even at lower temperatures, so you can switch to a 30C wash and not notice the difference - except in your bank balance. If every home in London turned down to 30C, the money saved could pay the energy bills of nearly 25,000 families.
Getting your clothes clean whilst keeping green:
- Get a dolly washer. In the olden days they looked like this. Nowadays they look a bit different and are supposed to cut down the amount of detergent you use by 75%.
- Green detergents are plant-based rather than oil-based, making them less toxic and biodegradable. Check out the latest ones from Ecover and Ecotopia.
- Ecoballs. Not a green version of David Beckham, but a way of cleaning your clothes without detergent.
- A pedal-powered washing machine. Perfect if you’re married to Lance Armstrong.
More info from the Green Thing wiki >>
More machine power-saving Green Things to do >>
More energy-saving Green Things to do >>
Here’s a thing…..if you find doing the laundry a real chore, spare a thought for poor Victorian laundry-maids. It used to take them 5 whole days to do the washing - but on the plus side, they lived in a world without George Bush.
<< Go back to more actions | Next action >>
Got something to say?
What others have said...
Hi Eanconet, I know Ecover sell in the States their web address is http://www.ecover.com/us/en/WhereToBuy/ Not sure about the others.
paperaeroplane at 19:32 on 15/02/08
This is great, but where can I buy this stuff in the US? Those sites only ship within the UK.
eanconet at 18:39 on 15/02/08
