Toward sustainable household laundry : Washing quality vs. environmental impacts

Tomšič, Brigita (author), Ofentavšek, Lara (author), Fink, Rok (author)

We tested the efficacy of standard soil removal and bacterial reduction from textile. A life cycle analysis for different washing cycles was also performed. The results show that washing at 40 °C and 10 g/L was the most effective and resulted in good removal of standard soiling. However, bacteria reduction was highest at 60 °C, 5 g/L and 40 °C, 20 g/L (> 5 log CFU/carrier). With the 40 °C, 10 g/L scenario, we approached the standard requirements for household laundry of ~ 4 log CFU/carrier reduction and good soil removal. Howsoever, life cycle analysis shows that washing at 40 °C and 10 g/L has a higher environmental impact than 60 °C and 5 g/L due to the significant contribution of the detergent. Reducing energy consumption and reformulation of detergents needs to be implemented in the household laundry to achieve sustainable washing without compromising the quality.

• Language: English
• Keywords: household laundry, soil removal, bacterial reduction, washing scenario, life cycle assessment
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: ZF - Faculty of Health Sciences; NTF - Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 02.04.2024
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 1011-1022
• Numbering: Vol. 34, no. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-154728-da00204d-1d08-0f06-aae3-a0861d2935f4
• UDC: 613
• ISSN on article: 1369-1619
• DOI: 10.1080/09603123.2023.2194615
• COBISS.SI-ID: 149325059
• Publication date in RUL: 26.02.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of environmental health research
• Shortened title: Int. j. environ. health res.
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis, Carfax
• ISSN: 1369-1619
• COBISS.SI-ID: 521341209

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• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.