Quick Tips to Make Your Laundry Cycles More Eco-Friendly

Love laundry? Neither do we — and we are particularly worry about the effects on the environment. Here are some of our tips on making your cycles more eco-friendly:

• Always use cold water. Not only is it gentler on your clothes, but about 90 percent of the energy associated with doing laundry involves just heating up the water. 

• Try reducing the number of loads you do each week to save water and money. 

• Look for detergents that don’t use chlorine bleach, synthetic fragrance, dyes, and optical brighteners. Instead aim for products that are plant-based and use biodegradable surfactants. A few of our favorites are Seventh Generation , Tide Pur Clean and Dropps.

• Skip the chlorine bleach. Not only can it irritate skin and eyes, but if U.S. household replaced just one 64–ounce bottle of chlorine bleach with non-chlorine bleach, we could prevent 11.6 million pounds of chlorine from entering our environment.

• Sort laundry by weight so all items in a load have similar drying times. Heavy towels will all dry evenly in one load, while lightweight clothing items will finish drying with a shorter drying cycle.