Washing With a Will
As you and I attempt to make our daily lives more sustainable, Giles Crosse looks into the kind of steps we can take.
Today he peers into a greener washing machine. One of the best things about the rising understanding of sustainability is that there’s more chance for ordinary people to make a meaningful impact. Today’s manufacturers are reacting to consumer demand for better products, and more eco friendly alternatives. Which means all we have to do is an hour’s research on the net before heading out to the shops. Just as importantly, greener alternatives are becoming just as cost effective as the next product. One of the areas that are changing is laundry.
Hot water
It doesn’t take a genius to work out one of the biggest environmental impacts of your weekly wash is heating water. Water has a high latent heat capacity, in other words it takes a lot of energy to heat water up, which is why it’s a handy thing to use in your radiator, as that energy can then warm your house. But in the washing machine, how much of this heat is truly needed? This comes down to how effective your washing powder is. If you use a concentrated powder, designed to work at lower temperatures, you’ll be cutting the amount of powder you use, with all the associated resource savings. And you’ll be saving a massive amount of energy. Which means you’re saving money too. Just this simple analysis is enough to illustrate that investigating the options is a bit of a no brainer. Procter & Gamble (P&G) is the owner of the Ariel cleaning brand. Its Ariel Excel Gel is designed to work at 15 degrees C. P&G says because the Excel Gel is super compacted, it can save 40 per cent of the water in your wash. Equally, it uses 14 per cent less packaging, and the lower 15 C temperature apparently saves 70 per cent of the energy needed to clean your clothes.
This could have a pretty big impact, as P&G’s Science in the box website says that, ‘Every second of every day more than 1,000 loads of laundry are being washed with P&G's detergents around the world. That is around five million loads of laundry on the go at any one time.’
Of course, it’s not just about the detergent. Electrolux is creating a range of ‘smart’ washing machines. These will work out how much washing is in a given load, and they will cut the length of the wash, and the amount of water used to fit. Future machines will even work out the cheapest times to do your wash, by connecting to the grid and monitoring energy prices. Others only use cold wash technology. So we won’t even have the choice to select 40 C when it’s totally unnecessary. This means we need to change the way we think about washing.
Even further in the future, ideas are about for smaller machines that sit above your toilet, and the water is then reused in the flush. Other ideas are hoping to encourage communal washing. There’s no need for 15 people in a block of flats to each heat a bunch of water, when they can put their washing out on a Monday, just as we put the recycling out each week. Then a bigger machine can do the lot.
Truth or dare
The only problem is, a lot of us have become a little suspicious over the years regarding greenwash, and the real eco benefits major companies try and convince us their products are offering. A degree of this is healthy, as we need to investigate a little to make sure our green dollar is really going in the right direction. But that’s not the same as being overly cynical.
Tristan Macdonald is Communications Manager, for Conseil Européen de la Construction d'appareils Domestiques (CECED). Based in Belgium, it promotes EU wide to increase appliance performance while reducing its impact on the environment.
“A product’s impact on the environment is strongest in its use phase,” he says. “The challenge here has always been to ensure excellent cleaning standards that the consumer demands (performance) while at the same time reducing energy and water use (use of resources).
“Basically the performance of washing machines in terms of efficiency has significantly improved over the last ten to fifteen years. Class A washing machines used to cover just a fraction of the market. They now cover around 90 per cent of the market. Another issue is the temperature of water needed for cleaning. It will continue on a downward trend,”
So that’s one easy thing to do – look at the energy rating before you buy your next washing machine.
“Overall the combination of increased efficient use of resources such as electricity and water, advances in detergents and developments in textiles have combined to decrease the overall environmental impact appliances have on the environment,” continues MacDonald.
“Smart grids could also be another important element for the future. Smart grids aim to help the existing network provide energy to consumers with the recourse, wherever possible, to using renewable energy. Over time the use of electricity generated by wind, solar or biomass, when this is practically possible, should also improve the overall level of clean energy usage,”
What about the things our governments should be doing to encourage all of this? They too have a responsibility to help drive the green economy, and make it easier and more appealing for global manufacturers to make their products as environmentally benign as possible.
“As for policy drivers, the EU is due to publish a review of its energy efficiency action plan in due course,” says MacDonald.
“CECED is part of a new industry/civil society coalition that is in the process of being set up. Provisionally entitled ‘the coalition’, it is arguing that sufficient weight must be given to the issue of energy efficiency as a way to help Europe meet its overall targets under the EU’s overall energy plan.”
Green machines
Luckily there is consumer advice about to help guide your decision making. In the UK, for example, ethical consumer offers a guide to the environmental performance of washing machines. Elsewhere, you could visit the Ethical Consumer Guide if you live in Australia. Other portals like Hippyshopper can help too. You just need to find the guide for wherever you live. Ultimately it’s up to us as individuals to choose what we buy, how and why. But if we claim to have any interest in the planet around us, it seems pretty unacceptable, with the changing processes of manufacturers and the massive media attention on the environment, to fail to at least spend thirty minutes looking at the options before charging off to the superstores on a Saturday afternoon.
What are your views? Not sure? Read the resources below for more information. Add your comment below. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Not a Planetary Citizen? Sign up to Our Future Planet today!
Read more articles with reference to Sustainable Living and Energy. Sign up to our newsletter for twice monthly news.
Resources:
AISE Activity and Sustainability
