Environmental Implications of Laundry Habits in Bangkok: Use Patterns of Products and Services

Abstract

This study aimed to define the use of products and services of PSS associated with laundry businesses such as coin-operated self-service laundromats (CL) and laundry services (LS) in order to get a better understanding of the environmental implications of PSS in laundry habits in Bangkok, Thailand. The motivation to use product-service systems (PSS) could vary according to the specific consumer needs often defined by cultures, and therefore the environmental impacts from the PSS use would result differently from country to country. Questionnaires and in-depth interviews were conducted with Bangkok residents to determine the laundry habits related to the use of PSS. As a result, the use of private washing machines (PW) was found to be in the main option and CL and LS were used as an additional option in the laundry habits. Regarding the environmental potential, the respondent who uses CL and LS frequently tended to do laundry less often than those who only use PW. Meanwhile, CL and LS users adopted the use of tumble dryer more often, and the need to use was high compared to others who do not use PSS. The need to improve the quality of laundry is expected to increase with the improvement of quality of living in Bangkok in the near future. However, at the same time, these observations imply that change of consumer behaviors related to the use of PSS can affect energy consumption and environmental burdens. To further clarify sustainable consumption and production systems, a quantitative analysis of the environmental impact of the laundry habits remains as a future task.