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Green Girl Turns the Tide on Laundry
By Lily Berthold-Bond
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Laundry. When living at home, this is not such a big deal. You can do your laundry every day, if you want to. You can leave it in the washing machine for an extra hour before transferring it to the dryer. You can take your own sweet time. |
In a dorm, laundry is not like this. It is hell. First of all, it costs three dollars to wash and dry a load of laundry. So you do not wash your laundry every day. Secondly, there is little time and therefore keeping up with doing laundry once a week is difficult. So you end up with two or three huge loads every couple of weeks. Thirdly, you have to have a good two hours set out when you can watch your laundry like a hawk.
With only six washers and eight dryers for a dorm of approximately 300 people, laundry becomes a complex process in which you must watch to see exactly what time your laundry is done, remove it, and put it in the dryer immediately. Otherwise, your laundry will get thrown out of the machine so that the next person can start their load before someone else steals it.
It’s highly stressful.
Point being, laundry is not fun. But everyone must do it, and so we all head down to the basement with our laundry detergent, bleach, and dryer sheets to keep our clothes extra clean and static-free. And toxic.
Yes, that’s right. Laundry detergent is probably not as safe for your health as you might have assumed. First of all there’s the whole fragrance thing. That scent on your clothes is nothing but synthetic chemicals that might give you migraines, asthma attacks, skin or eye irritation, and allergic reactions. I, personally, get a headache as soon as I step into the laundry room, a place filled with various scented detergents and dryer sheets at all times.
But the scent isn’t the only problem. Think about what else laundry detergent does, other than make your clothes smell “good”: they brighten, and they clean. This means that detergent is full of chemicals and cleaning agents called surfactants. Some of the worst for your health include “optical brighteners” and colorants. What’s so bad about these chemicals? Well let’s go one by one. But first imagine all of these laundry products going into lakes and rivers.
Some surfactants degrade into a muck that lasts a long time in the environment (read: slow to biodegrade) and is not only highly toxic to aquatic organisms but may disrupt their metabolism, reproduction, and growth. (Does this come back to us in our drinking water?)
Laundry colorants aren’t so good either—we’re talking the possibility of cancer and changing our DNA. Yes, our genetic information. And some are coated with a heavy metal for more toxic affects including harming fetuses.
And optical brighteners? They are suspected of developmental and reproductive harm.
Now, don’t worry, there are toxin-free detergents! Optical brighteners, fragrance, and colorants are all missing from products with the label FREE and CLEAR, and endocrine-disrupting surfactants are missing from green detergents. For as long as I can remember, my family has been a fan of detergents labeled FREE AND CLEAR, from green brands such as Seventh Generation or Ecover. This has always done the trick. At different times we’ve also used Seventh Generation’s lavender detergent, made from plant-based essential oils instead of petroleum-based scents. These seem like a ridiculously good alternative to endocrine disruption (but that’s just me).
Note to self: No detergent bursting with chemicals = no chemicals seeping into your skin. Buy detergents labeled FREE and CLEAR.
Resources:
Dinged by Dryer Sheets
Fabric Softeners: Easy Greening
Lily Berthold-Bond grew up in a chemical-free zone and has struggled her whole life to understand and accept this non-commercial lifestyle. Now a freshman at Tufts University, she has embraced her green life and hopes to share its possibilities with the rest of her generation.
MORE ADVENTURES OF GREEN GIRL
The Adventures of Green Girl
Splat! Green Girl whacks air fresheners
Green Girl zaps flying fridges
Green Girl’s secret power? Tea
Green Girl: Neti pot conquers congestion
Green Girl Quashes Laptop Radiation
Green Girl Looks Behind The Masc(ara)
Green Girl Waxes The Tea Kettle Electric
Green Girl Fights Food Coloring
Green Girl Turns Her Nose to Perfume
Green Girl Pans Plastic water Bottles
Green Girl Favors French Press
Read all the archives on the The Adventures of Green Girl home page.
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34 comments
add your comment »you can use vinegar instead of fabric softener. Just put it in your downy ball or fabric softener compartment. Your clothes don't come out smelling like vinegar.
For detergent I use Bio-Kleen brand Free & Clear. Bio-Kleen makes a great assortment of Earth friendlier cleaners.
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I need to make the switch to a more environmentally friendly laundry detergent. Why does it have to cost so much more than the bad stuff? Any thoughts on a less expensive brand out there that you could buy in store instead of having to order online? I stopped using Downy, because the smell of it just suddenly started to make me sick! Then I realized it was from all the chemicals. I found these great dryer thingies at Trader Joes. They are these little packs of lavender that you can use over and over again. They don't necessarily soften, but they do a good job on the static and smell great. Do you think straight baking soda would work to clean clothes? Or how about a mix of that and castille soap? Oh, and a great suggestion to save energy - I hang dry most of my clothes instead of drying them in the dryer. And now that summer is approaching, you could get a clothes line and dry everything outside!
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One bright morning my husband woke up with his lower legs itching, red, irritated and hurting--turned out to be from his socks with detergent residue left in. We stopped using the culprit detergent for FREE and CLEAR and though we also use public laundry facilities, the rash hasn't returned.
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How can you possibly avoid getting residues of other people's laundry products on your own clothes? This is a big problem for anyone with sensitivities when using community machines, including laundromats. It may not sound like much, until you wake one night with a blinding headache and realize it's the residue on your sheets from the contaminated dryer you had to use! I hope this comment gets responses.
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The Shaklee company has a line of non-toxic detergents, softeners, brighteners, etc. in their Get Clean line. They're highly concentrated to save on packaging, and very effective. My suggestion: find a Shaklee distributor on www.shaklee.com.
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I loved this post. I don't use dryer sheets or any kind of fabric softener because my daughter is strongly allergic. I also use the free and clear detergent. I started using them for my daughter and later learned of the great benefits. Thanks to this my mother changed what she uses and my sister-in-law did the same especially when she had kids who also seem to be very sensitive to artificial additives. I'm sure your example will influence people at your college. Keep up the good work.
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My family has been using non-toxic cleaners with the Shaklee products for many years. I have to say we hate sharing laundry machine too. This is becuase store bought soaps bung up and pollute the machine as well as the environment. Therefore leaving a residue on other people's clothes too. Of course we always make sure we have a full load and wash with cold water. Shaklee's Get Clean Products wash well in all temperatures and ships internationally, with 5 trees planted for every mission pack. Plus each pack saves you $3000.00 and 800 less bottles in the land fill. If you would like to find out more visit: http://www.shaklee.net/daydesigns/getclean/index
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Green Girl misses some of the biggest points here. What does shared laundry have to do with being green? Much! When you share laundry machines with others, you cut down on the negative effects of creating all those extra machines that sit around in people's laundry rooms unused most of the time. What is so green about washing your clothes every day? Nothing, because you would be running a half empty machine. I used to enjoy the weekly two hours I spent in a laundromat with my husband when we were young students; we could read or study or talk (wow isn't that novel!). The problem that we had in those days was that people were allowed to smoke in laundromats. While I don't care for all the smells in the laundry products these days, at least it is not cigarette smoke which penetrates your clothes before you get them home! Instead of decrying having to share laundry spaces (which is a truly green option), Green Girl should separate out the real problems that need to be addressed.
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Any suggestions for detergents that might be available internationally? I found Arm & Hammer that has no perfumes or dyes but am not sure this is the best option
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Any suggestions on detergents that might be available internationally? I have been using Arm & Hammer w/o perfumes and dyes but am not sure it's as good as something else might be
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