What if I don’t wash my towels like that?
Unfortunately, not washing conventional towels appropriately can essentially create a petri dish for bacteria. Towels, being damp and moist, provide the perfect environment for microbes to spread. Yea that “moldy” smell isn’t you, it’s microbes. And that mold actually might be causing your allergies or skin conditions to flare up.
And we’re all already fighting enough bacteria in the outside world!
Constantly washing laundry isn’t just annoying, it also has a serious environmental impact.
The Environmental Impact of Washing Laundry
Put simply, a conventional washing machine requires A LOT of water, a lot of energy, and can contribute to pollution in our ecosystems.
Depending on the type of washing machine you use, up to
40 gallons of water may be used per load of laundry. That’s over two standard fish tanks of water every load.
To make matters worse, any water that was not essentially absorbed into your laundry is considered wastewater and goes into the sewer system. And that’s how you get water pollution - especially if you’re washing towels with synthetic fibres which are essentially plastics.
Washing synthetic fibres like polyester can release an estimated
700,000 microscopic plastic fibers into the environment. These plastics don’t stay in the sewer systems but can actually infiltrate ecosystems and oceans -
poisoning aquatic animals that accidentally ingest them.
Plus, the clothes dryer alone is said to be responsible for approximately
six percent of the average home’s energy use. Imagine running that thing EVERY day, potentially several times a day.
So yea...your towels can be clean but at what cost?