Use the Shortest and Coldest Wash Cycle to Preserve Your Clothes
When you buy an item of clothing, the idea is usually to keep it new for as long as possible. (This clearly does not apply to things like sweatshirts and sleep shirts, which only get better with age and repeated trips to the washing machine.) But washing clothes is necessary, and most of us cannot. constantly take your clothes to the dry cleaner, like in the sitcoms of the 90s. We know that repeated washing is not conducive to longevity, so how do you keep your clothes clean and relatively new? It all comes down to setting the time and temperature of the washing machine, according to new research .
How to keep new clothes
This study, published in the journal Dyes & Pigments, was conducted with the participation of scientists from the University of Leeds in the UK and Proctor and Gamble ( who owns major brands of laundry detergents such as Tide, Gain, Downy and Cheer). Now that a corporation or professional organization funds and / or participates in research, it is right to be skeptical about it. In this case, the main focus was on how washing machines cause fabrics to spray microfibers, making your clothes look a little worse when worn out. The goal was to find out which wash program caused the least damage.
It turns out to be the gentlest, shortest and coldest wash cycle. (Which you probably guessed yourself.) And you know, P&G has been a leader in cold water detergents since introducing its first in 2005. But nothing prevents you from using this knowledge and buying another brand.
Impact on the environment
Another piece of the microfiber puzzle is that hundreds of thousands are thrown into every load of laundry, which then goes down the drain. Many of these tiny fibers then end up on beaches and oceans, where they can cause some damage to the local ecosystem, especially when swallowed by sea creatures and other marine life. Plus, being able to keep your clothes for longer means you don’t have to throw away old ones (where they end up in a landfill) and buy more items as replacements.
Ultimately, the researchers found that washing clothes using a faster, colder cycle reduced the amount of microfibers released into the environment by 52% and reduced the amount of dye released by 74%.