Email Sherry Listgarten About this blog: Although climate change has a huge impact on the planet, it is still an abstract concept for many of us. This needs to change. I hope readers of this blog can better understand how our climate evolves... (more) About this blog: Climate change, despite its huge impact on the planet, is still an abstract concept for many of us . This needs to be changed. I hope that readers of this blog will have a better understanding of how our climate is evolving and how they want to respond, and will feel comfortable asking questions and exchanging opinions on this topic. It is important that we reach a consensus on the basic science and impact of climate change in order to understand our future actions and policy choices. My background is not climate science, and I am not even particularly green; I hope this helps make this blog more relevant. I studied mathematics and neurobiology on the east coast, and then moved here in 1987 to study at the Graduate School of Computer Science. After working in the technology industry for about 25 years, I retired a few years ago to better align my time with my priorities. I like to spend time outdoors and deeply feel our responsibility to this incredible planet we call home. (hide)
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Of course, the testing of laundry products first depends on how dirty the laundry is? Unless someone plays in the mud or becomes very smelly due to exercise, most of our clothes today are slightly soiled. I rarely see the greasy work clothes of car mechanics, or the clothes of infants coated with spaghetti sauce. If any of these items enter the house, I can use special treatment or heavier detergents on these items or specific loads. I'm not a laundry fanatic, but I do think we spend a lot of energy washing clothes that are not very dirty. The towels dried after the shower can be hung up and used the next day. They only need to be changed once a week. The sweatshirt can be worn multiple times if it is only used as an extra layer of warmth. I think the best way to deal with the climate is to wash items only when they are really needed, and only use the strongest detergent when necessary. I would rather the product contains less artificial ingredients to make the clothes smell clean or fragrant than to remove the rarely produced stains on the clothes. Now, of course, those who live with manual workers or a house of children may need to wash more clothes, but even so, selectively loading different products may make the most sense.
I checked some linked articles and I believe the conclusion is that the single load cost of these new products is much higher. I would say that I am willing to pay a premium, but a 25% premium is a bit too high. We have learned from the experience of electric vehicles that to be successful in a wide range of markets, prices must be close to comparable. Of course, these are big-ticket items, so the 25% premium for EVs is thousands of dollars. Maybe when we talk about 13 cents/load premium, the importance of laundry products is not so high! We switched to using wool balls instead of fabric softener sheets. Although these balls are cheaper (and better for towels you want the fabric to absorb more), they don't seem to help static electricity. Maybe a small price to pay. I agree with @bystander's point that reducing the number of loads may be the first line of defense in environmental defense. If you can reduce the load by 25%, then switching to a cleaning strip is a washing (pun intended) in terms of cost and a victory for environmental protection.
I use laundry bars, but today I gave in and bought a small bottle of TIDE. These strips cannot remove stubborn stains. Having said that, I also pretreated the stains with additional detergent when using TIDe He. The strips cannot be used for pretreatment. But I definitely like the extra space on the shelves in the laundry area. As for dry balls, they are great! Penguins are very cute.
The "premium" of laundry bars is 50%, not 25%. Strips are 25% more expensive than TIDE PUR CLEAN. I will stick to Ted and Downey. If you really want to protect the environment (no longer throw away plastic bottles), you can make your own washing powder. I have never done it (and will not), but I always encounter it when reading "saving money" articles.
Responding to the "bystander" comment-things that don't need to be washed, not washing is the easiest and most cost-effective way to reduce detergent, energy, cost and effort. Of course-set your standards too low and you will end up badly. On the other hand, if you become indistinguishable from the "good earth" around you, it is very environmentally friendly... ;)
Regarding the important point of irrational disgust, some self-awareness is needed to recognize when this affects our behavior. In my opinion, this is usually a combination of rational and irrational disgust. For example, I am trying to eat less animal products. I'm still learning how to make pure plant food more satisfying, but I haven't quite done it yet. (There may be some unreasonable factors that cause certain foods to be satisfactory.) At the same time, I have been trying the latest fake meat and fake egg products and other engineered foods. The fake meat and fake eggs are very close to the real product, although I have a small amount of irrational aversion to them-I don't trust them very much, and they look a bit disgusting. But from the perspective of rational disgust, they are also more expensive! The cost of fake meat is higher than that of organic grass-fed ground beef. And the fake eggs are more expensive than the eggs of grazing hens bought from the farmers’ market. So, like, more expensive than the real expensive version. Maybe fake meat, fake eggs and laundry bars will drop in price if they become popular? Will try the laundry bar soon. Thanks, rachel
We washed clothes with old ivory soap. When they became thinner, I took a vegetable peeler and chopped them up and threw them in the washing machine. My husband is a young missionary. He told me that in Central America, villagers washed their clothes on the banks of the river and mashed their clothes with stones. He said that soft cotton fabrics are difficult to wear because his shirt wears out after being washed in the village for a few months or so. Then he adopted the same way of dressing as the villagers, because the materials used in their clothes were much rougher, such as canvas.
When I get older, I have a lady who comes to her house to do machine washing, so choosing detergent is no longer a problem or problem in my house.
hehe. I don't remember seeing these in the store. Where did you get it, Shirley? I am willing to try them.
I like all these comments, they really make me smile. @Rachel, you really know the content of this blog post, I like your term "irrational disgust". I have no good reason not to try these strips. They are gifts, so I didn't even pay for them, and they go well with my other detergents. Is it because I hate washing clothes and worry that I will "waste" a lot of clothes? But why am I skeptical of them in the first place? In this case, washing powder is not so important. The point is, when this concept of "irrational disgust" is promoted to more important things (as you write) or more influential people (such as car salesmen or HVAC installers), it will Becomes very problematic. These disgusts slow down the progress. How can we accept new things more comfortably? (By the way, by coincidence, I have fake eggs in my refrigerator and I haven't opened them yet. My daughter asked me to swear that I will never provide her with anything made from them. So even the new generation is susceptible to influence. .) @Elie, imo you will not get a pass for outsourcing laundry. For example, if you want to try this new product, you can let your laundrymen know about this new product. To give a better example, if you want to eat more vegetarian food, but your favorite restaurant has only one vegetarian food, your job is to say something and encourage them to provide more vegetarian options. @Bystander and others made a good point about washing less clothes in the beginning. Yes! For @maryann's comment, if we all wash clothes with stones, then washing less clothes will definitely be more noticeable. An HVAC person once told me that his least favorite electrical appliance is a tankless water heater, because it makes people very careless about the use of hot water. This is a very interesting thing. @eileen, an article I read said that you can pre-treat with strips, you only need to dissolve one in a glass of water. (In other words, I emphasize that what you use to pretreat clothes does not make good use of our mental energy.) Some of you point out that these costs are higher. Yes, I should mention it. But this is not important to the main point of the blog. (They are on my shelf and I did not use them.) But I am sure that high costs will affect whether retailers are willing to stock them and whether people will see them. @Consider, these are gifts, but you can buy them on Amazon (there are four), I believe there are many other places. Anyway, thanks to everyone for the very interesting and insightful comments...
I will think about washing powder again-and what it means. The "washing to landscape" reclaimed water system is very simple-people effectively use the water poured from the washing machine to water the landscape plants. I think this used to be illegal-different kinds of gray water, such as gray water from showers or dishwashers, may pose a health threat if left untreated-but I believe washing machine water is considered safe of. The cost of a system can be as low as $100 (basically a pipe)-a warning is that the detergent should be biodegradable, ideally, the sodium content of long-term use is low (you don't want salt to accumulate in the soil ). This may require special cleaning agents; but this can save a lot of water.
Laundry to landscape system (suitable for drought!) web link
@Alan A few years ago, when we lived in Toronto, the washing machine was equipped with an option to save and recycle water for the next laundry. The indispensable double laundry tub is very common in households. Save water and detergents. I didn't think much, so I did.
@eileen-It's fun; it's a kind of thrift that is rare nowadays. I think if the clothes are dirty enough, you won't recycle the water. Although-with efficient machines-we might get a similar effect because they use much less water per load (ideally-exactly what you need for a load).
Really great blog, this is definitely a problem that I and my friends and family often encounter. When the HVAC, water heater, or car of the people close to me fails, they know they will "talk" from me how climate-friendly solutions such as solar energy, heat pumps, and electric cars are more cost-effective, convenient, and if we want It is absolutely necessary to slow down the speed of the entire climate change. But my success rate is too low, even if I have very convincing teaching tools, such as the fun of driving an electric car or black and white PG&E bills. It looks like the "big idea" changes are adopted in a generation longer than a generation, which is really unfortunate considering the climate change situation we are studying. Has anyone studied this phenomenon in academia?
@Cameron, I would love to learn more about how to deal with this hesitation or disgust. More generally speaking, a lot of social science work is needed to achieve our goals, but I did not emphasize this as much as I did for physical sciences. I do know that "people are doing/using x" seems to work. https://theweek.com/articles/792616/peer-pressure-help-solve-climate-change "People basically know it, many people are not opposed to (climate action) politically, and many people can afford it financially Affordable; so the question is, what is holding them back?" Sparkman said. "This may be because the inaction of other (people) is very debilitating. Maybe when you see information about other people mobilizing and starting to make changes, maybe something in it may be contagious. Our research shows the situation. It may be so." Economists will also say that prices are very different. But if "cheaper" is a complicated story, it's even harder. Electric cars are generally cheaper, but more expensive upfront. Same as LED bulbs. Explain why HPWH’s $2500 rebate is a bargain and saves money. It’s not easy. But my electrician said (as he did) "Boy, I am installing a lot of these heat pump water heaters"-this may attract people's attention because they don't want to miss it.
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