The average Swiss washes around 300 kg of laundry per year. With this amount, it is obvious that waste water and high water and electricity consumption are required - all at the expense of our environment.
You can reduce your environmental impact with simple tricks and small changes: when washing, drying and also when choosing your detergent. And you can save money too.
When washing
There are three simple approaches to keeping electricity and water consumption during washing as low as possible:
- Do without the "prewash"
- Wash at the lowest possible temperatures
- Fill the machine optimally
Prewash
The "pre-wash" program consumes a lot of energy and is usually unnecessary thanks to today's detergents and modern washing machines.
Tip: Pre-treat the stains immediately instead. We'll tell you how to do this below.
Washing at lower temperatures
The same applies to the washing temperature: you don't need to wash anything at 95 °C to wash. You can easily wash your colored laundry at 30 °C and your whites at 40 °C as a rule. Compared to the 60 °C wash program, you save around 35 - 40 %, and compared to a 90 °C wash, you can even save up to 70 % energy! You also protect the fabric of your clothes.
Use the bluu silvertrooper! The silver cloth allows you to lower the washing temperature by 20 °C and successfully eliminates bacteria and germs thanks to its strong antibacterial effect. You can achieve the same effect with a 40 °C wash cycle as before at 60 °C. Discover the bluu silvertrooper now!
Tip: To prevent germs from forming in the washing machine, you should run an empty machine without detergent every few months.
Do you already know our bluu washing strips? They are the best choice if you want to wash at low temperatures and are a great way to save energy!
Fill the washing machine correctly
It's not worth running your washing machine with only three or four items of clothing in it. Underfilling your machine is not only a waste of electricity and water, but also puts excessive strain on the fabric of the textiles.
But overfilling is not good either: too much laundry in the drum prevents the water from really running through everywhere and your clothes don't get clean.
The rule is: A raised, spread-out hand above the laundry must still fit into the drum. Then your machine is optimally filled.
The detergent
Every Swiss person uses around eight kilograms of detergent per year. That's quite a lot that ends up in waste water every year (around 70 million liters in Switzerland alone). Although the majority of the chemicals it contains can be broken down in sewage treatment plants, not all of them can.
Overdosing is also bad: the more detergent is used for washing, the more ends up in our waterways. In addition, if too much detergent is used, the machine cannot rinse everything out of the clothes: they start to stink, which in turn means that you will wash the clothes again more quickly.
Our washing strips are easily biodegradable and free from microplastics, preservatives, optical brighteners, bleach and chlorine. The pre-dosed strips also make it impossible to accidentally overdose.
Tip: Fabric softener is also harmful and harmful to the environment. It is best to avoid it altogether. Instead, use a tablespoon of vinegar when washing: This also makes the laundry supple.
Remove stains sustainably
You don't need chemicals to remove stains from your laundry.
These are the best home remedies for removing stains:
- Our stain soap: Rub the stain with it before washing and wash the garment as usual after a short exposure. We use high-quality, plant-based ingredients such as olive oil from Greece and soapwort from the Alps. As a result, we not only achieve a good washing result, but also a good result for our blue planet.
- Baking soda: Also a tried and tested stain remover. Put some baking soda on the stain, leave it on overnight, rinse it out with cold water and wash the clothes normally in the machine.
- Sun: For discoloration and grey stains, you can leave your clothes in the sun - ideally, it will "bleach" the stain away.
When drying
And what about drying the clothes?
With our bluu balls you can dry your laundry more easily and efficiently! With these four balls, your laundry dries faster and comes out of the dryer fluffy and crease-free, so you no longer need fabric softener! What's more, our bluu balls are free from chemicals and fragrances, making them a safe and environmentally friendly choice. And it's easy on your wallet too. You can find out more here.
