This theme is part of the Community Center Festival of Sustainability
The original topic was posted in the French-speaking Community Center by @Zoรฉ27, and we have translated it below.
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When you take care of your own property's laundry, you spend a lot of time doing laundry. The cleanliness of the linen and towels is an essential factor for the guest experience. However, laundry is an activity that has a significant environmental impact: we use energy, water, and ecotoxic products, and we release microfibres, in addition to toxic products, into the environment. The ecotoxicity of all detergents is proven, regardless of their format, and a 2006 study by the National Institute of Consumer Affairs revealed that none are truly biodegradable, including so-called "ecological" detergents.
To lighten our ecological footprint, we can adopt a few simple actions:
- Favour long cycles (the rapid rise in temperature of short cycles consumes more energy than a long cycle)
- Use natural fibre fabrics (to release less synthetic microfibres)
- Favour ecological laundry (even if it remains polluting, it's always "less bad")
- Choose a detergent that is sold in a recycled container, and made in your region of the world (transport represents a large proportion of the carbon footprint of laundry)
Two other levers are very important, but more complex to implement in the context of a furnished rental:
- Wash less often (we see this happening in hotels, where towels are no longer systematically changed every day)
- The biggest energy expense is by far due to water heating. Washing at cold temperatures or at 30ยฐC therefore makes it possible to reduce the environmental impact significantly (and in addition to using less energy, it preserves laundry, and colours). This is not always possible, however, because it is necessary to disinfect the laundry between rentals, but the temperature is only effective in this regard from 60ยฐC.
We can also make our own laundry detergent! This option has the advantage of greatly reducing not only the cost of washing, but also its ecological impact. I've been making my own laundry detergent for years. I tested a lot of recipes by staining pieces of white cotton fabric (marker pen, blood, mustard, Tabasco, soy sauce), then the next day (so that the stains had time to dry), washing at 30ยฐC.
Here I am sharing my favourite recipe with you, a liquid detergent found on the blog MerciRaoul, as well as a powder variant.
Liquid laundry detergent recipe:
Boil the water, cut the heat, add the soap and soda. Allow to cool, then stir if the laundry detergent has solidified. Transfer it to your container.
The picture on the left shows the laundry detergent before mixing. On the right, this is the product obtained. There's a lot of foam because I just transferred it to the bottle.
Use: one dose (dosing cap), as with any commercial laundry detergent.
Laundry detergent powder recipe:
This recipe is from the Banana Pancakes blog.
Recipe:
Mix the soap finely (otherwise it won't dissolve well in water). In a large hermetic jar, combine the mixed soap, bicarbonate of soda and soda crystals. Close the jar and shake to mix everything. Let it sit for a little while before opening to avoid the dust of the soda crystals (dangerous, you should particularly avoid inhaling it).
Usage: 1 tablespoon directly in the drum
Note that, when cold, powdered laundry detergent is less effective than liquid laundry detergent. In addition, the ingredients mixed here have different sizes and densities, which means that the mixture is not very homogeneous, and the particles group together quite quickly (the bicarbonate falls to the bottom, and the soap rises up). That's why I prefer liquid laundry detergent.
These two recipes are the most effective that I have found, but according to my tests, commercial laundry detergent still remains more effective on stains. Here are the test results for these two recipes after washing the stained fabrics:
1 = Branded industrial detergent (not the cheapest) / 2 = washing at 30ยฐC without product / 3 = the liquid detergent that I prefer / 4 = powder detergent.
I've tried many others (including washing with ivy), but they've been less effective.
In the end, commercial laundry detergent is still more effective because it has removed all stains. But given the low level of soiling of my laundry, the satisfactory efficiency of the homemade laundry detergent, and its cost per wash (about 1.3 cents for the liquid compared to 40 cents for the commercial one, and 8 cents for the powder laundry detergent), it is the latter that I prefer, even if it means occasionally using a stain remover on larger stains, or commercial laundry detergent.
To bleach/remove greyness from laundry:
For white, if I want to add sodium percarbonate or sodium bicarbonate to whiten it, it must be washed at least at 60ยฐC, because it is not effective below that temperature. In addition, it is not used in liquid laundry detergent, because it activates upon contact with water and therefore will no longer have an effect after a period of storage. It is best to put it directly in the drum of the machine with a cycle of at least 60ยฐC.
What about adding fragrances to the laundry?
For fragrances, I tested essential oils, which doesn't work at all. Essential oil drops do not achieve anything; they are immiscible in water and are eliminated with the washing water. They definitely don't fragrance laundry (try it, and you'll see). In addition, they are not recommended because they are still VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), and they can cause irritation. I did not find anything to fragrance the laundry washed with the homemade laundry detergent; it does not have any smell.
What about softening the laundry?
What is expected of a softener is to obtain linen that is soft, fluffy, and, if possible, smells good. I tried a lot of homemade softener recipes (vinegar-based, with or without glycerin, Epsom salts, etc.), but none convinced me. To put it simply, here are analogies of my tactile perceptions after my tests:
The only thing I found that works to mitigate the stiffness of fabrics is to add a little clay and/or Epsom salts in my laundry detergent (it is also a process that has been patented by some laundry detergents), or to put in some industrial softener.
So that my linen smells good and is soft, I add a little softener, especially for towels, because I have not found an ecological equivalent that is sufficiently effective for the rental linen.
Careful, an idea that one often encounters on the internet says that you can add vinegar to laundry detergent to improve its effectiveness and soften the laundry: this is totally FALSE!
If you add vinegar to your laundry detergent, it will have two undesirable consequences: it will neutralise the soda and acidify your laundry, and therefore it will no longer clean any grease. This is because greasy stains require a basic medium (=alkaline) because this improves the action of surfactants, which are one of the main components of a detergent and the one that is responsible for removing dirt.
