Laundry and the Environment

Often protecting the environment involves a few simple changes in the ways we accomplish daily chores. Here are some ways to make laundry tasks environmentally friendly:

• Pretreat or presoak stains and heavy soils before washing to get the best stain removal without using extra hot water or rewashing.
• A full load is the most energy-efficient use of your washing machine. If that is not practical, adjust the water level to correspond to the size of your load.
• Read and follow the label directions for the recommended amount of detergent. Heavily-soiled loads or hard water may require slightly more than the recommended amount; slightly less than the recommended amount can be used in soft water or for lightly soiled loads. Measure, do not guess!
• Ultra detergents are concentrated detergents in liquid or powder form. They come in smaller packages yet are designed to offer the same cleaning power as similar products in larger packages. You will need less ultra detergent than with an unconcentrated product so follow label instructions and use the measuring cap or scoop that comes with the product.
• Heating water eats up energy so whenever possible, switch to the warm, or even better, the cold setting. If your hot water supply is limited, start with the hot-water-wash loads, then follow with warm, then cold. Rinse all loads in cold water.
• If your washer has a water-return system, re-use the wash water for additional loads. Start with hot water, lightly soiled items and the recommended amount of detergent. Add more detergent for each additional load.
• If you are in the market for a new washing machine, high efficiency (HE) washers are designed to provide major savings when compared to traditional agitator machines. They use less water--from 20% to 66% less. They use less energy--from 20% to 50% less because there is much less water to heat. They extract more water from the clothes which reduces drying time.
• Unlike traditional agitator washers, most HE washers use a tumbler system with no agitator. In a front-loading HE washer, the laundry tumbles back and forth as the tub rotates clockwise, then counterclockwise. In a top-loading HE washer, a gentle combination of spinning, rotating and/or wobbling wheels, plates or disks are used to move the items as they are cleaned.
• For best cleaning performance, use only HE detergents in an HE washing machine. They are formulated to be low-sudsing and quick dispersing. Using a traditional detergent in an HE washer creates an excess of suds which can interfere with the tumbling action and redeposit soil onto clean clothes.

In the world of clothes dryers, there is no equivalent to the HE dryer for energy savings. If you are in the market for a new one, be sure it has a moisture sensor that automatically shuts off the machine when clothes are dry.

There are also some simple guidelines to follow for maximum energy efficiency.

1. Dry full loads--Just don't overdo it. You want air to be able to circulate around the clothes.

2. Utilize retained heat--Drying two loads or more in a row will cut down on individual drying time.

3. Be lint free--To improve drying efficiency, clean the lint filter before each load.

4. Air dry--Not everything has to go into the dryer.