How to Make Your Laundry Eco-Friendly | Green Living

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Hi, Alegre from Ember Living here today to talk about how to green your laundry. As I talk about with a lot of green living topics, green living is about using non-toxic materials and using resources in a smart way. So when you're buying your detergents or any sort of thing that you're going to put in your laundry, think about what is the most planet-friendly thing that I can buy, especially if you're going to put that fluent, the left over water into your garden or something. You really want to make sure that you're using Earth-friendly products.

So when you're looking at your detergents, make sure that they are biodegradable and Earth-friendly. Also in terms of non-toxic products to use, avoid chlorine bleach. There are lots of whiteners out there that are not chlorine-based. They are oxygen-based, and they do a great job of whitening. You could also consider hang drying your laundry because nothing gets laundry whiter than the sun. That's why they call things "sun-bleached".

The sun actually interacts with the water in the clothing when it's wet, and it will give you the whitest sheets you've ever had. If you have dingy sheets, put them outside when they're wet and they will become really white. It also saves you a ton of energy by not using your dryer if you hang dry your clothing. Now, going back to some other ways to save energy, because it's always about smart use of resources, if you wash your clothing on "cold", and most detergents nowadays are formulated to work really well with cold water, you'll actually save energy because you're not using up all that energy to heat up the water.

And a final tip in terms of a product that replaces both a toxic product and helps you save energy, are dryer balls. Dryer balls are simply a set of balls, there's two balls, and they bounce around inside your dryer. And by bouncing around they help to lift the fabrics and they cut your drying time by as much as 20 percent, and they also cut down on static electricity. And they soften your laundry mechanically by literally massaging the fabric, rather than by chemically, by putting some sort of ingredient in, some sort of toxic chemical in that makes your laundry feel softer. So dryer balls are a great way to both save energy and cut down on chemicals. So some simple tips on how to green your laundry.

Hope you found them helpful. Thanks.