The lifecycle impact of a t-shirt involves everything from production, to use of the shirt, through its post life. It may surprise you to learn that the biggest energy guzzler comes not from the production stage with its water usage and electricity needed to run big machinery, but from the use of the shirt. In fact, 75% of energy use associated with t-shirts occurs in the laundering process. So, how can we change this fact to help chip away at the global climate change problem and be more eco conscious consumers?

Let’s imagine we have two consumers, A and B, who are quite different from one another.

Consumer A does multiple loads of laundry every week- sometimes one every day. After wearing a tee once to run errands, she tosses it in the washing machine with a few other items and sets the machine to run on hot water with conventional detergent. When the machine stops, she transfers her clothes to the dryer, and tosses in a dryer sheet since she skipped the liquid fabric softener in the wash. She leaves the house again and upon returning discovers the dryer has finished and her clothes have been sitting in a pile getting wrinkled. She turns on the iron to stamp out the pesky wrinkles that have settled into her clean clothes before putting them away.

Consumer B does her laundry once a week, as long as she has a full load. She has a section of her closet where she hangs clothes she has only worn a few times, that are not dirty enough yet to be washed. She also uses fabric freshener spray to extend the wear between washes in her clothes. When she has enough for a full load, she sets her machine to run cold water and fills it with her tees, socks, undergarments, sheets, towels, and natural detergent. Most other items, she hand washes in cold water and natural detergent. When her wash is complete, she hangs everything to dry. She hangs light colored garments on a line out in the sun and dark garments on a drying rack inside so they don’t fade. If any of her clothes look wrinkly, she throws them in the dryer on low for a few minutes, then puts them away.

Now we can see effects of these two inverse processes.

Overall, Consumer B’s clothes will last much longer and look better than Consumer A’s, simply from line drying. Here are some other benefits to skipping the dryer:

Clothes will not pill since there is no abrasion and friction like in the dryer
They will retain their shape without being stretched and shrunk in the dryer
Utility bills will drop
Wet clothes hung inside in the winter provides a natural humidifier which can reduce sickness
Clothes hung outside are hit by the sun’s UV rays, which are antibacterial
You get Vitamin D, fresh air, and an excuse to go outside more while hanging your clothes

Consumer B’s washing process is also significantly better than Consumer A’s. Putting only full loads of laundry in the machine and washing with cold water only make huge differences in energy savings, as it take so much energy to heat water. The price savings are impressive too!

The consumers lifestyles and habits also play a role in their environmental impact. Consumer A washes clothes only after one use, which can be unnecessarily wasteful. Consumer B wears her clothes as many times as possible before washing (with the exception of socks and unmentionables). She also uses natural detergents and skips on harmful fabric softeners and dryer sheets. These products contain chlorine bleach, synthetic fragrance, dyes, and other chemicals harmful to both humans, and the environment.

Most laundry detergents end up in the water supply and stunt development of aquatic life, disrupting ecosystems. If that doesn’t make you think twice, consider that the clothes touching your skin everyday harbor chemicals and carcinogens that frequently cause skin irritation, endocrine disruption, rashes, respiratory distress. Making the switch to natural detergents and fabric softeners is easy and important.