🔎 What’s going on?
Oxwash, a sustainable laundry company based in Oxford, UK raises £1.4million in seed-funding from high profile investors.
👕 Cool, tell me more!
Oxwash is re-engineering laundry by addressing all the environmental issues associated with traditional methods of washing clothes. 60% of the water used in each laundry cycle is reclaimed for the next wash. They also operate a microfibre filtration of the reclaimed water so 95% of all microfibres released from previous washes are captured and removed. Most uniquely, they use ozone gas (yup, the same ozone that also protects us from the harmful radiation from the sun) to disinfect all the clothes. Since delivery and pick-up of clothes require transport, Oxwash employs electric bikes so their entire laundry process has zero carbon impact.
❓Why should I care?
Household and industrial laundry have a massive environmental impact, including their contribution to carbon emissions, water pollution and water wastage.
6% of all carbon emissions in the UK come from domestic energy and water use of laundry. Turns out that 80% of the carbon footprint of clothes occurs after we’ve bought them in the “use” phase. This is because the clothing’s lifecycle impact mainly comes from washing and drying. Washing and drying a 5kg load of laundry every 2 days creates nearly 440 kg of carbon emissions in a year.
According to NGO Friends of the Earth, “one washing load of clothes could be shedding up to 17 million tiny plastic fibres.” These plastic microfibres make their way into the oceans and sadly end up inside marine animals. They’ve also been found in our soil and the air we breathe.
🚦 Where do we need to be?
According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), once water is contaminated, it is difficult, costly and often impossible to remove the pollutants. Countries have started to implement single-use plastic bag bans nationally to prevent plastic pollution, however, this needs to extend to microplastics as well. Microplastics are less than 5mm and usually come from clothes.
And in terms of carbon emissions, every country, company and household should aim to be net-zero by 2050. Meaning they should figure out which parts of their daily life contribute to emissions and start finding alternatives.
👤 What can I do about it?
According to Mike Berners Lee and Guardian the carbon footprint of a load of laundry is:
- 0.6 kg CO2e washed at 30°C, dried on the line
- 0.7 kg CO2e washed at 40°C, dried on the line
- 2.4 kg CO2e washed at 40°C, tumble-dried in a vented dryer
- 3.3 kg CO2e washed at 60°C, dried in a combined washer-dryer
In terms of what you can do at home:
- Reduce the frequency of washing your clothes
- Lower the temperature of the wash
- Switch to Clothes Rack or Washing Line to air dry your clothes
- Hand Wash Your Clothes
- Use Eco-friendly Washing Machines (front-loading washing machine has been found to be better for the environment than using a top-loader)
- Fill up your Washing Machine (make sure it’s a full load)
To ensure microfibers don’t enter our rivers and oceans, you can use the Guppy Friend Wash Bag.