Sustainable Laundry Routine – 5 Best Eco Friendly Products

I thought I would put together everything that you may need for a sustainable laundry routine, including eco friendly products and tips for reducing the environmental impact of washing your clothes.

I’ve discussed some of this information on my YouTube channel, see video below.

This post contains affiliate links which means I make a small profit if you buy through my link. I would never recommend something I didn’t believe in or wouldn’t buy myself, thank you for your support.

How Do You Do Laundry Sustainably

A sustainable laundry routine is not just about what you use on your clothes to wash them, however it is a great place to start. Most of the products people use to wash their laundry come in single use plastic containers and often contains potentially harmful ingredients which pollute our waterways.

Eco Friendly Products

Castille Soap

If you are a big fan of DIY cleaners, castille soap is an excellent option for a sustainable laundry routine. I know some people living sustainably like to use castille soap to make their own laundry liquid, using other ingredients. I don’t personally have any experience with this, however.

This household soap is really versatile as well as you can use it for cleaning, laundry detergent and washing up liquid.

Clothes Doctor

Clothes Doctor make a few different eco friendly products, called laundry washes, No. 2 is an all round laundry wash and No.4 is for silk clothing and No.5 for sportswear. This laundry wash comes in an aluminium bottles as well, a really nice option for a sustainable laundry routine if you prefer laundry liquids.

Eco Egg

I’ve probably had a sustainable laundry routine for my clothes for several years now. I was fortunate that about 7 years ago my mum bought an antibacterial eco egg and furthermore she gave me her old one.

The Eco egg was founded in 2008, the innovative eco egg replaces traditional laundry detergent and softener as the mineral pelletts lift away dirt without leaving a residue. Eco eggs are formulated without harsh ingredients making them suitable for allergy prone skin.

Although the eco egg itself is made from plastic, it is refillable with their refill pelletts and should last 10 years. Their standard laundry egg is £9.99 and should last 70 washes before you need to refill the pelletts. It comes available fragrance free, spring blossom fragrance and fresh linen.

They also stock dryer eggs which are said to reduce drying time for 28% and leave a light fragrance if you choose that option.

The only thing that I find using the laundry egg is that it’s not great at removing stains, however they do have a tube of stain remover to use in addition to this. They also have a laundry egg that’s specifically for whites if that was important to you.

Soapnuts

Soapnuts, also known as eco nuts or soap berries are basically a natural berry grown in India. Which has excellent cleaning properties and perfect for a sustainable laundry routine. I’ve used soapnuts when I was doing the No poo hair method and I currently use soapnuts to clean my toddlers cloth nappies. They can be used for washing up, shampoo and as laundry detergent. For detergent you just put approximately 6 berries into a washing pouch and put it into the washing machine with all of the clothes.

TrueEarth

TrueEarth laundry strips are one of the most popular eco friendly products that I’ve seen. This vegan laundry detergent is a dry strip that you just put in the washing machine drum and then add your clothes. These are a perfect accompaniment to a sustainable laundry routine as they only have natural ingredients and it’s also tough at getting rid of stains.

Another great option is Earth Breeze, I’ve recently written an Earth Breeze Product Review if you want to learn more.

How Often Should You Wash Your Clothes

As in my YouTube video that I’ve linked above, I discuss that I avoid washing my clothes as much for the environment. Often when people think about a sustainable laundry routine, they forget that it doesn’t just apply to the products that you use.

Washing your clothes much less is a great way to avoid the energy used from running the washing machine constantly. Of course the things in the home that create heat are always the ones that use the most energy. I actually wash cloth nappies on a daily basis to ensure I have a constant supply and because I don’t have a huge collection. However, I don’t wash any of my clothes unnecessarily.

In general you should wash individual items of clothing as follows:

• Tops 3-4 days
• Trousers/Jeans every 5-7 days
• Pyjamas every 5-7 days
• Underwear daily

Unless I get a stain on my top then I will wear a top for about 3 days before changing it. Jeans I will wear for about a week before washing.

I will state that I’m not particularly active and I do appreciate that not everyone will be able to do this. However, it seems the norm in western society to wear something once and then wash it and often that is just not necessary. Sometimes you can even air out clothes if they aren’t actually dirty. Sometimes smells from cooking and the air just get onto the clothes and hanging them out on the line can prolong the time between washing.

I’ve also read that washing machines are so efficient these days that even washing on 30 or 40 degrees cycles are enough to clean your clothes thoroughly. Unless of course you have a job that leaves you particularly filthy or with a sanitary need to have your clothes washed hotter – then it’s just not necessary to wash your clothes on a hot cycle.

Even washing my toddler’s cloth nappies, I’ve been surprised how a 30 degree cycle cleans them so well that there’s not any staining on the nappies what-so-ever.

Another tip for a sustainable laundry routine is to pick cotton cycles if possible on your washing machine as they use much less water.

Micro Plastic Filters

Another thing to consider when you want to do laundry more sustainably is to find a solution for microplastics released from clothes during a wash.

As I live in rented accommodation, I had to find a solution for microplastics from my families clothes which didn’t involve anything to permanent. I’m also quite terrible at DIY and I’m embarrassed to say that I wouldn’t have a clue how to fit the filters that go on the back of the machine.

The below options for saving micro plastics that come off of your clothes are as follows:

Cora Ball

I discuss using the Cora Ball in a product review and in my Ocean of plastic blog post, however this device is one of the most interesting eco friendly products.

The Cora Ball is made from recycled plastic, it was designed based on coral in the ocean and how it collects debris etc to keep the ocean clean. The design of the ball means that it collects the microfibers from your clothes.

I actually really should clean mine out of the threads, see image below. At least that gives you a realistic idea of how this eco friendly products works.

Earth Kind Washing Bag

This Earth Kind Microfilter washing bag is a laundry bag specifically for synthetic clothes such as polycotton, polyester and nylon. As I mention in my Plastic pollution in our oceans post, when we wash synthetic clothes, microplastics from the clothes come off in the washing machine and then they go through our water systems. They finally end up polluting the ocean and therefore the marine life.

This bag collects these microplastics and then after a few uses you just chuck for the pieces of thread and dispose of them.

I hope this post about having a sustainable laundry routine is useful. I have included eco friendly products as well in this post which I hadn’t included in my YouTube video.

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