A. Phyfferoen, J. Swazey
When you consider the environmental impact of laundry
detergent, it’s almost mind-boggling. A 2017 United States
Environmental Protection Agency report estimated water usage
per load of laundry. The average residential top-loading
washing machine can use up to 41 gallons of water per load
(155.2 litres). (Newer, more-efficient machines on the market
can use as low as 10.5 gallons or just under 40 litres) [1]. Now
consider that, globally, 67% of people said they do laundry
twice per week, according to a 2017 Nielsen survey. That is a
lot of water! Along with the millions and millions of gallons of
wastewater, now think about all the laundry detergent being
used to clean that laundry and where it ends up. This means
extraordinarily large amounts of ingredients derived from petroleum
and microplastics entering our waters and potentially
harming marine life.
EN 
