by Tommy Hayfield

Created on: February 12, 2009   Last Updated: February 16, 2009

"Going green" is becoming fashionable for more than just reducing the earth's rising temperature. The "green" movement has a lot of ideas which form its backbone and one of those is reducing electricity consumption thereby potentially reducing power plant usage of coal and other fossil fuels.

Keep the following facts in mind when washing clothes The power consumption of a front loading washer is lower than that of a top loading one. It's cheaper to wash one full load of clothes than two half loads. Dryers of recent manufacture can be set to dry to a desired level of moisture. This is a good option if you don't happen to want to sit by the dryer to save a bit of change. Of course hand washing clothes is also cheap and makes sense when you need to wash just a few items. I wash many of my small items by hand and hang them indoors. You can do this especially in the colder weather. Whenever you lower your electricity usage you are contributing a positive act, a thoughtful act in support of the environment.

"Going green" has support when you have decided to be "green" by using environmentally friendly or eco-friendly detergents. I've researched and have found six eco-friendly laundry detergents that fall in the price range of what you would expect to pay for a "non-green" detergent. Most of the eco-friendly laundry detergents available use plant sources for their ingredients and generally treat the environment better than the old detergents with phosphates that have been phased out by the federal government here in the United States.

On the labels of eco-friendly laundry detergents you find might claims their detergent contains no perfumes or dyes. Many claim their product is "petrochemical-free." Some claim their product is plant-based or it has a neutral pH factor. Some have more "green-friendly" claims than others.

A factor to consider when determining which eco-friendly detergent to buy is the cost per load of wash. I found the price per wash of the six products I assessed to be between 13 and about 50 cents per load. This cost I gleaned from the article on "green" laundry products at http://www.grist.org/advice/products/2008/02/26/. That cost range is similar to the price I have normally seen in stores for regularly formulated laundry detergents.

In addition to the descriptions of the tangible characteristics I mentioned above there are also eco-friendly detergents that are "gray-water" safe and "septic safe." A few claim no animals were tested in determining the safety of the formulation of their detergent.

Overall there is a lot of information on the "green friendly" product labels to help you decide what product suits your particular laundry need and your view of an appropriate level of concern for the environment.

Resources http://www.grist .org/advice/products/2008/02/26/

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