Laundering too much? Your bills and carbon footprint might be high

People are washing some items from the laundry basket just once a year. Is there a method to the madness?

Only 20% of people in the survey said they don’t wash underwear after a single use. Picture Credit: cookie_studio on Freepik

The expert advise of laundering underwear and socks after every use and changing bedsheets once a week? Outrageous and wasteful is what John from York calls it. He is quite sure there is no scientific basis for this and he doesn’t wash clothes until they start smelling.

“But, I ensure you I don’t smell horrible in an antisocial way.”

A low-carbon-living advocate with a mission to achieve zero carbon footprint, John believes people need a sensible approach to washing clothes. If there is no sweat or dirt, he keeps his T-shirt off the washing pile: “Energy and money are not infinite.”

ohn washes T-shirts when they begin to smell, like after a chain-sawing session, because washing is a high energy (electricity) consumption activity. Credit: Gill Cossham.

“Every time you wash clothes, it releases microfibres into the environment, which is really harmful,” says John.

“Water uses a lot of energy (electricity) — pumping, filtering and cleaning. Detergent chemicals also have a manufacturing cost in terms of carbon and resource-use. Even though I use biodegradable…