Episode 90
Eco-Friendly Laundry Hacks: Practical Tips for Reducing Your Footprint
Episode Summary: a conversation with Leekei and Olabanji on the environmental impact of laundry and some practical tips to reduce its carbon footprint.
Washing clothes is a routine task that we all need to do frequently.
However, have you considered the impact of laundry on natural resources and climate change?
In a discussion between Leekei and Olabanji, they share some thoughts on reducing the environmental impact of doing laundry.
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Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.
Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Ima.
Speaker:I live in Scotland.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Jen and I'm from Canada.
Speaker:Hi, I'm Aji and I'm from Nigeria.
Speaker:Hello, I'm Leaky and I live in Paris.
Speaker:Hey, I'm Rod.
Speaker:I'm from Peru.
Speaker:Welcome to Carbon Sessions.
Speaker:A podcast with carbon conversations for every day with everyone
Speaker:from everywhere in the world.
Speaker:In our conversations, we share ideas, perspectives, questions, and things we
Speaker:can actually do to make a difference.
Speaker:So don't be shy.
Speaker:Join our carbon sessions because it's not too late.
Speaker:So hi.
Speaker:Hi, I am Aji.
Speaker:Hey.
Speaker:Hey.
Speaker:I would love to talk about laundry today.
Speaker:Laundry, yeah.
Speaker:Because we do it all the time.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we should be doing it right, because if we're doing it a lot of time
Speaker:and we're doing it wrong, Ben, uh oh.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That is a problem I think it was you or Inma who mentioned something
Speaker:about opera and her bedsheets.
Speaker:Yeah, we, we talked a bit about opera, her avocado orchard and her bedsheets as well.
Speaker:That's right.
Speaker:Oh, so her bedsheets, I, I think she said something like, oh, um, I
Speaker:real, she say that she really loves to have clean and crisps, bedsheets.
Speaker:Every single night.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Something like that, right?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:She did, she did say that.
Speaker:Oh, I mean, I like it, but you know that it's not so good for the environment.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's not, because then they have to get washed every single time.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Uh, yes.
Speaker:Washing puts a lot of stress on the environment, right?
Speaker:Yeah, it does because it uses water detergent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Electricity.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And for those who do the who uses the dryer to dry the clothes,
Speaker:it uses electricity again.
Speaker:And um, so it's not so good to, to do laundry.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's it's not, I mean, they'll do it all the time.
Speaker:That's what we're saying.
Speaker:We're not saying we're dead codes, we're saying No, just, I don't know.
Speaker:Don't do it all the time.
Speaker:But it's so easy, you know, you wear something , and then you
Speaker:just like, okay, um, I just put it in the, um, in the laundry bin.
Speaker:Because, uh, it's easy, it's handy, and, uh, because you think,
Speaker:okay, I wore it only once and then, um, and then it's dirty.
Speaker:But I think we can do better than that, except.
Speaker:When we do exercise.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because then we get sweaty.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I'll need to do, do exercise.
Speaker:Cause, well this is what I thought, that we need to do laundry every single day.
Speaker:I mean, if you exercise every single day, you need to do laundry every single day.
Speaker:It is what I thought.
Speaker:But then I realized that doing laundry is not so good for the planet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, um, um, now I'm trying to not wash my, uh, my workout clubs
Speaker:every single time I use them.
Speaker:And, um, what I do is I, I sock them I sock them in water.
Speaker:But at the beginning, um, it doesn't smell very good.
Speaker:I soak them, I rinse them, but still doesn't smell really, really nice.
Speaker:So I found a solution, which is to use a little bit of vinegar of white vinegar.
Speaker:I soak Oh wow.
Speaker:I soak them with, um, with in water with a dash of vinegar and it takes
Speaker:to smell, um, the bad smell away.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So now, oh, that's, yeah.
Speaker:Now I don't wash my, my workout clubs every single time I use them.
Speaker:that's, um, that's a lot of, um, a lot less of laundry to do in a week.
Speaker:Yeah, that sounds great.
Speaker:I should try that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, I should try that.
Speaker:That sounds good.
Speaker:Yeah, it's part of my,
Speaker:Uh, I exercise, I normally have a shower, so while I have a shower,
Speaker:I put them in the, in the bath.
Speaker:And I put.
Speaker:Water and a little bit of vinegar.
Speaker:And, and that's just, um, first of, that's proof that when
Speaker:you care, you find ways out.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, you find, you find way out if you care or not.
Speaker:And that's the good thing about this, because when we find people
Speaker:that care, then there's a wheel.
Speaker:And when there's a wheel, there's a way.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And if you absolutely have to wash and do it in cold water instead of,
Speaker:uh, The other ways do cold water hang dry instead of using a dryer?
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Uh, use a concentrated detergent instead of the other one.
Speaker:So next time you go shopping, shop for a concentrated detergent and wash your
Speaker:clothes and cold water and hang them dry.
Speaker:I always wash my clothes in cold order.
Speaker:I've done that since forever.
Speaker:Really?
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:But I found out also that you know, what is even worse than, , during laundry
Speaker:in the washing machine is, what's that?
Speaker:Dry cleaning.
Speaker:Dry cleaning is even worse than this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Oh, don't we have a laundry to go?
Speaker:Yeah, because basically dry cleaning, it's, it's.
Speaker:Quite similar to the process of, um, of laundry with a traditional, , machine.
Speaker:You need a machine.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But instead of soaking the clothes in water, it's soaked in a kind of chemical
Speaker:and then it's washed with chemical and then it needs to be dried , because it's.
Speaker:There's chemical and, um, so the whole thing needs, , needs a lot of
Speaker:electricity, but also because this chemical emits, um, something that
Speaker:is very bad for, for your health.
Speaker:So you need also for the people that work in the, um, in the dry cleaning
Speaker:factories, you need to extract and purify the, the air so you don't get.
Speaker:poison with, with, um, with infected air.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So it's even worse than that.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And so, uh, what I'm trying to do is to avoid buying clothes that requires
Speaker:dry cleaning, because sometimes you have the choice you can buy.
Speaker:Uh, sometimes, I mean, yes, sometimes when you buy clothes it says dry cleaning only.
Speaker:But dry cleaning is Oh, really, really bad.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, so that's, that's a, that's a great point.
Speaker:Point of entry.
Speaker:So by clothes that are not drying only, um, ones that are happy to be washed in
Speaker:cold water and don't use a dryer as well.
Speaker:Yeah, just dry it out.
Speaker:Just hand dry instead of, uh, instead of using a dryer.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you don't need to wash your clothes every time you wear them.
Speaker:It's not problem hygiene.
Speaker:It's not a, because I, I don't feel good hygiene.
Speaker:It's just because I care.
Speaker:Oh yeah.
Speaker:I, that, that's, um, every, every single time we, we get back to that point
Speaker:where you have to care to make a change, you have to just, just decide to care.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be, we understand that you're busy sometime and
Speaker:there's a lot going on with you, but.
Speaker:If we pretty much do not save the earth, we'll not have anything to be busy with.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You're right.
Speaker:So every time we have a choice to make, maybe we can just step back,
Speaker:take a moment and think of what all the consequences of our actions and
Speaker:decisions on the world around us.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And do it with care and intention as well.
Speaker:Yeah, I totally agree.
Speaker:Care and intent.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I mean, I love the earth.
Speaker:That's what I say every single time.
Speaker:And if I love the earth, then I should take care of the earth.
Speaker:So perhaps when you wake up in the morning, tell the earth,
Speaker:Hey, earth, I love you and I hope to be kind to you today.
Speaker:So I think it just places a mindset in a way that we remember that, Hey,
Speaker:I said I loved her this morning, so.
Speaker:Uh, I need to prove that.
Speaker:Be congruent.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Should say.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's been an amazing conversation.
Speaker:Thank you very much.
Speaker:Bye.
Speaker:Thank you to bye.
Speaker:You've been listening to Carbon Sessions, a podcast with carbon
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Speaker:We'd love you to join the Carbon sessions so you too can share your
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