A company that sells cleaning products is giving customers some surprising advice: wash your clothes less.
Ecover is calling for a change in our laundry habits after research found people felt under societal pressure to wash their clothes more frequently, and were unaware that this could damage the environment.
The brand, in partnership with Falmouth University, is publishing a report this week into the impact of laundry on the environment. The researchers found that 18% of the 2,000 Britons interviewed for the report in August believed – wrongly – that washing less frequently would not affect the planet. One in 10 feel pressure to do laundry more frequently.
The report also found that 75% of participants in recent studies mentioned fear of judgment from others for wearing the same clothes multiple days in a row.
Model and environmental activist Lily Cole, who will chair a panel discussion on the findings in London this week, said she had experienced this. “The attitude has changed in recent years, but I was in the sidebar of shame a few times for wearing the same look on the red carpet,” she said.
“Back then it was seen as a faux pas. Celebrity culture is often an extreme version of what we’re seeing in culture in general: the values, the shaming, the conversation around cleanliness.”
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the number of wash loads in the UK increased by 9.6% from 6.2bn to 6.8bn between 2005 and 2014. By 2016, the ONS estimated that each household was responsible for 260 wash loads a year.
Pollution from detergent causes serious risks to flora and fauna and natural ecosystems. Changes to the textiles used to make modern clothes have exacerbated the problem – washing clothes made from synthetic fabrics accounts for about 8% of the microplastics released into our water. Microfibre shedding during washes decreases over time, but if “fast fashion” clothes are poorly made and quickly discarded, new clothes are constantly being added to the cycle.
Dr Cui Su, from the school of communication, Falmouth University, who worked on the report said: “For decades, our relationship with laundry has been shaped by powerful cultural forces and advertising that have conditioned us to believe that ‘perfectly clean’ is the only acceptable standard. From the smell of freshly washed clothes to the crispness of fabrics, cleanliness has been presented not just as a necessity, but as a reflection of success.”
In more recent years, influencers have also helped to shape our laundry habits – the hashtag #cleanwithme has 648.4k posts on TikTok and #cleaningobsessed has 162k posts on Instagram. But clean clothes and a large wardrobe of appropriate outfits have a long association with social standing.
Katherine Ashenburg, author of the book Clean: An Unsanitised History of Washing, says: “In the 17th and 18th centuries – among the dirtiest centuries in the west – people, including doctors, believed that changing your linen shirt frequently was a safer and more effective way of removing dirt than washing your body with soap and water. Louis XIV bathed twice in his long life, but he was considered very clean because he changed his shirt several times a day.”
Cole – who said she was wearing the same T-shirt for the second day running for her interview – added: “My mum, who grew up on a mountain in southern Wales without electricity, tells me her mother would spend a whole day handwashing their clothes each week. I must admit I love having a washing machine. But there’s a bigger message here of a mindset towards the things that we own, taking care of them and making investments.
“Build a long-term relationship with clothes and think about the way you wash them, how you repair them and if you can pass them on or donate them if it’s not something you can wear for a long time.”