Energy and carbon impact from residential laundry in the United States

Abstract

To address climate change and other are sustainability imperatives, the private sector has launched various initiatives that are aimed to evaluate and reduce the impact throughout the life cycle of consumer products. Recently, multi-national retailers and manufacturers have initiated a unified approach in creating sustainable indexing programs for the products they make and sell. Often overlooked in addressing pressing sustainability imperatives such as climate change are the consumptive patterns and impact of consumer goods during the consumer use phase. This article presents an empirical study of the consumer use phase of laundry care with a specific focus on electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. By understanding the climate change impact associated with the consumer use phase, innovations in the manufacturing phase as well as life cycle benefits of different technologies and consumer actions can be explored. Incentives offered to consumers on appropriate technologies used in this phase can be examined to identify the effectiveness of change-agents. Our results indicate that a carbon dioxide reduction of 105 MMT and electricity savings of 142 thousand GWh can be obtained by optimizing and modifying technological and consumer behavior strategies. This is roughly equivalent to removing 12.1% of the 135.4 M passenger cars in the United States per year or taking 23 coal power plants off the grid. In addition, more than 60% of water consumption (512 billion gallons) while laundering can be reduced through these strategies.

Does Use Matter? Comparison of Environmental Impacts of Clothing Based on Fiber Type

“…Most countries have lower average laundering temperatures than in Europe. For example, the average temperature is about 31 • C in the USA [66], and about 18 • C in Japan [67]. It is difficult to estimate what the global average is, as various washing methods are used, and little is known about some, especially about hand laundering that is the dominant method in many rural developing areas.…”

“…Water consumption per kilogram of textiles per laundry load is higher in delicates and wool wash cycles than other commonly used wash cycles (Table 4). However, water use in washing machines is highly dependent on: (i) the type of machine (vertical axis top loading machines use a lot more than horizontal drum types) [66,71]; (ii) the age of machine (new machines are more efficient due to stricter energy labelling requirements and improved automatic water level adjustment to fit the amount of laundry) [72,73]; (iii) maximum capacity of the machine [74]; and (iv) the selected program [68].…”

Environmental Implications of Laundry Habits in Bangkok: Use Patterns of Products and Services

“…For these reasons, the use of PSS by consumers is widely considered as a useful contribution to address impact of laundry habits cannot be simplified to specific values; they have to be addressed considering variations in cultures and lifestyle affecting use patterns at different locations [10]. For example, laundry habits such as the type of washing machine (washer) technology, ownership of washer and dryer, pre and post treatment, and laundry temperature preferences differ by country [2,11]. Moreover, PSS is also provided in various ways to adapt to these laundry habits formed by consumers who have different needs and interests in each country.…”

Comparison of environmental and economic impacts caused by the washing machine operation of various regions

“…The environmental impacts made by the consumption of electricity and water at washing operation have been studied to vary depending on washing machine type, frequency of washing, the number of rinsing, wash temperature, full load capacity of washing machine, and filling load (Golden et al 2010;Laitala et al 2011Laitala et al , 2012, where most of earlier researches were performed in a certain nation; thus, the selection of those washing parameters was often dependent on social convention (Jack 2013;Lin and Iyer 2007;Wilhite et al 1996).…”

“…Thus, in Japan, cold wash detergent with enzymes that function at lower temperature was often used to achieve the expected washing performance. Total electricity and water consumption could be saved by this washing practice (Lin and Iyer 2007), but cold-water detergents are likely to have more enzymes and surfactants to compensate for a lower washing temperature; thus, the resulting environmental impacts of cold-water detergents must be considered (Golden et al 2010). The implication here is that the environmental impacts caused by washing are rooted from various reasons such as social convention and products; thus, the issue of sustainable laundering process should be approached in multiple aspects.…”