An easy way to become more sustainable and kinder to the planet, is to reduce/change the way we wash out clothes.
Every time we wash our clothes, thousands of micro-fibres are released and passed through our water systems, ultimately ending up as a pollutant in our environment. If your clothes are made from a synthetic/polyester material (as is common these days), you are also releasing thousands of microplastics with each wash.
Whilst washing your clothes can't always be avoided, there are some really useful tips and tricks you can use to help preserve your clothes for longer and prevent the use of machine washing and subsequent release of microplastics/microfibres.
Here at Phloem we advise you to wash your clothes as little as possible for the sake of both preserving your clothes and the environment. If you can, try and wash your clothes by hand (keep your eyes peeled for a future blog post on this very topic). When you do need to wash them with a machine, we recommend a low temperature wash with a small amount of liquid detergent (powder detergents create more friction and hence more fibres released from the fabrics) and let you clothes air dry to avoid using tumble dryers.
Here are a number of useful tricks that can be used to remove common stains from your clothes, and prevent you having to wash them entirely.
| Stain | Removal agent |
|
Grass Red Wine Grease Blood Oil Deodorant Sweat Lipstick Ink Make-up |
Vinegar White wine Soda Hydrogen peroxide White chalk Denim Lemon juice Baby wipes Milk Shaving cream |