TreeHugger Picks: Eco-Laundry
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA 
on 04. 7.06
Ahh...Friday. The weekend is nigh, which, for some of us means time away from work to attend to life's simpler pleasures. One of these, without a doubt, is laundry. We all can't swing by the world's largest laundromat that uses solar electricity (in Chicago) or have self-cleaning clothes, so here are our picks for doing laundry the TreeHugger way.
1) If you have Samsung's SilverCare, the machine that generates silver ions to disinfect washwater and clothes to keep your clothes clean longer or Sanyo's Aqua that cleans your clothes without water, you're off to a good start. If you're in the market for a new machine, let TreeHugger help you do your homework.
2) Soap Nuts and Cot'n Wash are good alternatives to traditional detergents.
3) The Airwash just might be the future of laundry, using negative ions and compressed air to get the dirt out.
4) The WonderWash is a hand-operated, electricity-free alternative to getting clothes clean.
5) Once you're dirty laundry is clean, be sure to follow our how-to list for drying, wearing and future washing.
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What about these?
http://www.columbuswashboard.com/columbuswashboard_dublhandi_index.jpg
http://www.maryjanesfarm.com/SimplyMJ/images/laundry-dryingrack.jpg
Or this?
http://www.realgoods.com/images/limages/1063411.jpg
i have a wonderwash. it works using pressure as well. it does a surprisingly good job.
All's "small & mighty" soap is a concentrated version of its normal deterget, which is truly amazing, b/c it reduces the weight of its product by ~70%. That is major transportation and packaging impacts! All they do is just eliminate some filler. It is great. This deserves more notice!!!
Chris
No mention of Staber??
www.staber.com
Soap nuts seem great, only can't find them being sold in the states. Ordering them from the UK makes them less environmentally sound as a substitute. It seem that many of these products need a local distributor or producer to make them viable.
Here's a nod being cheap, you can buy twelve pounds of baking soda at Costco for something like 5.50. Add that to the wash and your clothes come out brighter and softer. It's an eco-friendly product and a multipurpose cleanser from bathroom tiles to teeth.
I love my LG washer dryer combo unit (one machine washes & dries). I acutally don't dry with it much, but hang things outside or on a european type drying rack I built. It hangs from the ceiling, I lower it, throw on wet clothes/towels, raise it back up where it's out of the way. Since heat rises it makes use of the extra heat near the ceiling.
I use Charlie's Soap in my vertical axis and it is amazing. No soapy smell, we only need to use a tiny bit, and it lasts forever!
Charlies Soap
I recommend it to all treehuggers!
Lara, I'm VERY curious! More information please?
>european type drying rack I >built. It hangs from the >ceiling, I lower it, throw on >wet clothes/towels, raise it >back up where it's out of the >way. Since heat rises it makes >use of the extra heat near the >ceiling.
We recently came out with a larger spin dryer with a 3200 rpm spin cycle, which can be viewed at http://www.laundry-alternative.com/drying.htm
It doesn't get the clothes 100% dry, but it removes as much water in 2-3 minutes as a tumble dryer does in 30, while using less than 1/10th the electricity on a per minute basis.
European type drying racks
http://www.smartson.se/test/hushall/torkstallningar.htm
http://www.smarthem.se/index.php?cPath=381_323
fisher-paykel washer spins clothes out so dry no dryer is needed. you could just hang the clothes for 30 min to an hour and they are dry very efficient and extreamly reliaable also parts are cheeper than the big name brands
And if you get a fisher and paykel one you can recycle the parts to make a windmill - check this out - http://www.yourgreendream.com/diy_fisher_paykel.php
I really want soap nuts to work - I live in France and you can buy them at my local organic supermarket - but they're just not very good at getting things really clean. I don't have any outside space so i can't hang things out in the sunshine. Baking soda in the wash doesn't seem to make much difference either - all my whites are slowly turning a yellowish grey. Any suggestions?