{"id":9220,"date":"2018-11-08T20:00:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T01:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/?p=9220"},"modified":"2019-03-12T17:17:43","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T21:17:43","slug":"wash-clothes-cold-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/wash-clothes-cold-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Wash Your Clothes in Cold Water!"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 style=\"text-align: left;\">It&#8217;s better for your clothes, your wallet, and your planet<a href=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-9221 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water.jpg\" alt=\"wash your clothes in cold water to save!\" width=\"404\" height=\"404\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-270x270.jpg 270w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-230x230.jpg 230w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-45x45.jpg 45w, https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/wash-clothes-cold-water-560x560.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\" \/><\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Like most people, I thought it needed to be warm water until a couple of years ago, but it turns out that\u2019s not the case anymore. Why? Because they don\u2019t make washing machines and detergents like they used to. It\u2019s 2018 and they make them better! The <\/span>consensus among<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> laundry experts (yeah, that\u2019s a thing) is that the technologies have changed, making the more user-friendly cold water the way to go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">(the exception to this is if someone has been sick and the laundry needs to be sanitized)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why use cold water? It\u2019s better for your clothes, for you, and for the Earth. Here\u2019s why:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<em>Consumer Reports\u2019<\/em> past tests found detergents have gotten <\/span><b><i>much better<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> at putting enzymes to work in removing dirt and stains at <\/span><b><i>lower water<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> temperatures, and are <\/span><b><i>less effective at higher temperatures<\/i><\/b><b>.<\/b>\u201d<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hotter water temps can actually be bad. \u201cProtein stains (blood, sweat) can set in when washed in hot water, and hot water may shrink or wrinkle synthetic fabrics.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And my favorite, \u201cSince about 90 percent of the energy consumed while running a load is used to heat the water, the average household opting for cold can eliminate as much as <\/span><b><i>350 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. For most homes, this will amount to about<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.realsimple.com\/home-organizing\/cleaning\/laundry\/does-washing-clothes-in-cold-water-really-get-them-clean\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">$40 in savings<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> a year.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Ryan Hagen writes to help reverse global warming and bring more sustainability into the world. He is the founder of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdsourcingsustainability.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crowdsourcing Sustainability<\/a> and sends out an informative and uplifting <a href=\"https:\/\/app.convertkit.com\/landing_pages\/443105\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sustainability newsletter<\/a> every week.\u00a0This post was\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdsourcingsustainability.org\/wash-clothes-cold-water\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">originally featured<\/a> in the newsletter.<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"test\" class=\"et_pb_module et_pb_text et_pb_text_1 custom-text et_pb_bg_layout_light et_pb_text_align_left\">\n<div class=\"et_pb_text_inner\">\n<p><em>Read other content from the \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdsourcingsustainability.org\/what-on-earth-take-sustainable-action\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Take Sustainable Action<\/a>\u201d section or <\/em><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.crowdsourcingsustainability.org\/sustainability-newsletter-what-on-earth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">see all sections of the What on EARTH?! sustainability newsletter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s better for your clothes, your wallet, and your planet Like most people, I thought it needed to be warm water until a couple of years ago, but it turns out that\u2019s not the case anymore. Why? Because they don\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":9221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[234,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-green-tips","category-lg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenneedham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}