Laundering refers to the washing, drying, and ironing of clothes to remove soiling and odor. Yet, clothing is routinely laundered for many other reasons such as to tidy domestic clutter by moving barely worn clothes into a washing basket.(1) As both frequency and volume of laundered garments are increasing, the total energy use linked to laundry in the UK is estimated to have doubled since the 1970s.(2) Frequent laundering negatively affects the longevity of garments and it further increases the total water use and carbon footprint of clothing over its lifecycle.(3,4) More recently, domestic laundering has also been identified as one of the key sources of microfiber pollution.(5)
LAUNDERING
