Clean laundry with pure conscience—A study on laundry practices among Finnish consumers

Abstract

The previous study concerning laundry practices in Finland was published 16 years ago. Since that time, many pro‐environmental debates have been going on and sustainable actions have been implemented in many areas of individual lives and households. The purpose of this study is to investigate the textile laundering practices of Finnish consumers and their attitudes toward clothing care procedures. This study discusses how laundry habits could be developed into a more sustainable direction. The data for this research were gathered through an online enquiry that consisted of structured multiple‐choice questions. The data were obtained from 1,841 persons of whom 97.5% were women (n = 1,795). The data were analyzed by statistical means using the SPSS program. The data show that, despite media attention and debate about textile care procedures, there still are factors in laundering that burden the environment. From a sustainability point of view, some improvements exist when comparing to the situation 16 years ago, but washing machines still are seldom filled to their full capacity and consumers, being unaware of water hardness, administer excessive amounts of detergent. The current life situations of the household members seem to be major factors influencing laundry habits and sustainable actions. Especially, young people and families with children would benefit from information and instructions on laundry practices. Topics could contain knowledge about water hardness and proper dosing of detergent, filling the washing machine, washing temperatures, drying methods, and saving energy. Furthermore, general promotion of gender equality is important because household work and laundering is strikingly women‐performed work.

Fungal colorants in applications – focus on Cortinarius species

“…The challenge for wearable textiles is wet washing, which is most favoured by consumers . In particular, cellulose fibres are challenging in terms of washing because the attachment of biocolorants to the fabric is weak, and the stability of the chemical structure against the pH change in washing liquid causes, in most cases, a change in the observed colour.…”

“…According to these results, a new mindset could be useful in textile care procedures, about how textiles are used and maintained. Studies show that textiles are washed in extensive cycles and that excessive amounts of detergents are used [32,35,36], in many cases without the textiles being particularly dirty. Our study showed that people carefully follow the textile producers' care labels [32] and that therefore, from the perspective of biocolorants, it is Table 4 Colour fastness to light (LF) and washing fastness to domestic and commercial laundering (WF) of dyed and printed materials.…”

“…Studies show that textiles are washed in extensive cycles and that excessive amounts of detergents are used , in many cases without the textiles being particularly dirty. Our study showed that people carefully follow the textile producers’ care labels and that therefore, from the perspective of biocolorants, it is important to test the appropriate washing conditions and add care labels which instruct consumers to use the appropriate type of detergent (pH‐neutral or slightly acidic) and correct washing temperature. From the point of view of sustainability, lower temperatures and neutral detergents in low washing liquid concentrations are preferable.…”

Investigating the effectiveness of simplified labels for safe use communication: The case of household detergents

“…As for the information stickiness (i.e., label information that participants spontaneously remembered and reported afterwards), the most often recalled pieces of information were dosage instructions (27.8% of respondents) and washing instructions (18.6% of respondents). According to a recent Finnish study, the most used course of action to determine the detergent dosage is to follow the dosage instructions mentioned on the package (Miilunpalo & Räisänen, 2019). As the package is thus often consulted for this information (certainly the first time they use the brand), it is not surprising that this is also the information that sticks best.…”

Sharing is caring - the importance of capital goods when assessing environmental impacts from private and shared laundry systems in Sweden

“…It is worth noting that shared laundries are common in many countries, especially in more densely populated areas. For example, shared laundries (e.g., communal laundry rooms within a multi-family building, or a commercial coinoperated facility) are often used in the Philippines (Retamal and Schandl 2018), Japan and Thailand (Moon 2020) and Finland (Miilunpalo and Raisanen 2019). A recent study by Laitala et al (2020) also found that the use of shared washing machines varied between 6 and 13% among consumers in China, Germany, Japan, UK, and the USA.…”