Environmentally friendly washing – This is how it works

Basically, washing clothes is not too complicated an activity.

However, there are many mistakes that can be made, but most people are not aware of them in their daily lives.

From an ecological perspective, laundry washing must be viewed quite critically.

This is mainly due to the high consumption of electricity and water during washing, but the detergents used also play a role.

Fortunately, there are many tips available to make washing clothes much more environmentally friendly in the future.

One of them is, for example, to use ecological detergent for washing, such as the high-quality Sonett detergent.

How the environmental impact of washing can also be reduced is explained in the following article.

The correct temperature

Many people wash their laundry much warmer than is actually necessary. Most energy is used to heat the water.

This means that large amounts of energy can be saved if a lower washing temperature is selected.

The emission of CO2 is also lower than in the case of hot water temperatures.

If washing is carried out at 60, 40 and 30 degrees Celsius, energy consumption is reduced by more than 35 percent.

This is not only good for the environment, but also for the pocketbook.

Avoid the jumbo packs

In the trade, washing powders are very often found in oversized XXL packaging.

They create the impression among consumers that they offer a particularly high savings potential, which is why they enjoy great popularity.

However the large packing tempts also to use nearly the double quantity of detergent than with small packing.

In addition, they often contain fillers to stretch them.

They are extremely harmful to water, and they also cause severe damage to sewage systems and concrete, which means that they have to be repaired more frequently.

This shows that no money can be saved with the jumbo packaging, and besides this, a great harm is done to the environment.

For this reason, the Federal Environment Agency also recommends using highly concentrated detergents.

These can be recognized by the fact that a maximum of 70 grams of the detergent is to be used per wash cycle.

This indicates that the detergent contains few chemicals and fillers and can therefore be considered environmentally friendly.

Only use powder detergents

The environmental impact is also much greater with liquid detergents than with powder detergents.

The reason for this is that liquid detergents contain a greater amount of surfactants.

These are washing active substances, which can be both naturally derived and synthetically produced.

The surfactants reduce the tension of the water surface and also act as solubilizers.

This means that they allow two substances to mix that would not mix under normal circumstances, such as water and oil.

As part of the washing process, the substances ensure that the clothes are freed from the impurities. However, they are made from coconut oil, palm kernel oil, coal or petroleum.

Since 2005, it has been required by law that the surfactants in detergents must be completely biodegradable.

However, detergents that contain as few surfactants as possible should always be used.