an investigation of domestic laundry in europe - habits ... - SIFO

26An investigation into the domestic laundry habits in Europe2.3.3 Attitudes towards the laundry process and its impactOur next step was to look for any differences in attitudes towards how laundryshould be done as well as how it is actually done. This is important for manyreasons; for instance, if there is a broad consensus that people wash too muchor too often, it might be easier to change this. On the other hand, if the resultof the laundering is not satisfactory, this may generate a negative environmentaleffect because of more frequent laundering, ruined clothes or increaseduse of additional laundry products (for instance stain remover and chlorinebleach). Five statements were presented describing attitudes towards the laundryprocess, related to clothing and to the environment:- People today generally wash their clothes too often- Modern laundry habits are generally harmful to the environment- I always examine washing instruction tags carefully- Laundry wears out clothes more than actually wearing them does- Hot water wears out clothes more than cold water doesThe number of statements makes it difficult to give a straightforward description.However, figure 2-3 shows that the Spanish respondents differ significantlyfrom the others in regard to three of the statements: “Laundry wears outclothes more than wearing them does”, “Hot water wears out clothes morethan cold water does”, and finally “Modern laundry habits are generally harmfulto the environment”. This indicates that the Spanish respondents are morelikely to perceive the technical aspects of laundering as harmful either toclothes or to the environment. The respondents in the other countries agreemore or less at the same level, with the exception that a very small share ofthe Norwegian respondents feels that hot water wears out clothes.Modern laundry habits do not seem to be related to the environment otherthan in Spain. Only a small share (about 25 % of the respondents in Greece,the Netherlands and Norway) fully agree with the statement that modernlaundry habits are harmful to the environment. In response to the question ofwhether clothes are washed too often, half of the respondents in Spain andGreece fully agree with this statement, while fewer respondents in Norwayand the Netherlands share this opinion. We shall have a closer look later as towhether practice varies on how laundry is done. One statement referred towhether wash instructions are examined. Figure 2-3 shows that a fairly largeproportion, between 55 and 61 %, agreed with this statement in all of thecountries.