Thanks to technological advancements, people are washing their clothes more than ever these days. The average household in Europe reports up to five loads of washing machine per week. This means that more energy and water are consumed.
Access to washing machines has also increased globally. In 2010, only 30 percent of the world's households washed their clothes with washing machines. In 2024, this figure is already approaching 80 percent.
According to a new study cited by Euronews, there is already a tendency for people to wash clothes without an urgent need for it. Thus, the environmental impact is also increased.
Of all global releases of microplastics, between 16 and 35 percent come from washing synthetic fibers. A single wash of polyester clothing can release 700 microplastic fibers, says the European Parliament's research office.
Why do we wash our clothes more than ever?
A survey of 2000 people conducted by scientists in Sweden found that people's concern about being perceived as unclean outweighed their desire to make important environmental choices.
“Yes, machines have become more energy efficient. But how often we choose to wash has a direct impact on the environment. And the fact is this - we have never done as much laundry as we do today. The worrying trend is that most people seem uninterested in changing their laundry behavior to limit the impact on the climate," says Erik Klint, PhD student at the Department of Environmental Systems Analysis at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and lead scientist on the study.
According to him, there are two main factors that can influence us - our environmental identity and how prone we are to "feeling dirty".
"The study shows that the higher our sensitivity to dirt, the more we wash, regardless of whether we value our environmental identity highly. "Unfortunately, the sense of dirty just trumps environmental awareness," says Clint.
How can we encourage people to wash less often?
Clint believes that campaigns aimed at making us think about the impact of our laundry on the environment have the wrong approach.
"It doesn't matter how reasonable and research-based your argument is. If it contradicts the various driving forces of people, such as the desire to feel a sense of belonging to a group, then that argument, however reasonable, will be invalid,” he says.
According to him, the desire to be clean drives our behavior so strongly because it is an evolutionarily determined emotion that functions as a defense against infection or dangerous substances. This drive is further intensified in combination with shame or fear of social exclusion.
"Instead of trying to get people to wash their clothes less, this research suggests that campaigns should focus on the psychological drivers behind people's habits." This includes finding ways to encourage people not to create a lot of laundry in the first place, such as using clothes more times before they hit the washing machine. It can be about targeting excessive washing, with messages like “Most people use their T-shirt more than once. But there are other solutions. We should consider replacing the use of a washing machine with other actions, such as airing clothes, brushing dirt or removing individual stains by hand. Economic arguments can be emphasized - after all, clothes wear out when they go through the machine", concludes Clint.