Although having clean clothes is important, doing laundry is a chore that causes stress for many Duke students.
Nevertheless, once time can be made, all you have to do it put your laundry and soap in a washer, and with a simple swipe of a Duke card, the wash cycle begins. What many people might not realize, is that this mindless chore is actually bad for the environment.
In an effort to be more environmentally friendly, Duke washing machines were updated in 2007, after Durham suffered one of the worst droughts it has ever seen, said Pat Walker, general manager of duke store operations.
“During the drought, I called our contractors and said that we needed to save some water,” Walker said. “We installed speed-queen high efficiency front load washers, and by installing these we reduced the water usage on campus by 50 percent, which is approximately 2.9 million gallons of water per year.”
Walker added that the washing machines we use on campus are energy-efficient, cutting the energy cost associated with laundry by about $75,000 per year. The old machines used 30 gallons of water per load, but those installed in 2007 use only 15 gallons.
An additional precaution that can be taken to make laundry “greener” is the use of cold water to wash clothes, instead of hot water. The machines on campus offer both options to students when choosing wash cycles, but that doesn’t guarantee that students are aware of being energy efficient while washing out those stubborn stains.
“I haven’t thought about the environment while doing my laundry, but I’ve definitely thought about the cost,” said freshman Cynthia Wang. “I always wash my clothes in cold water so that they don’t shrink, but didn’t really think about the fact that using cold water would save energy.”
The washers on campus are also cited to work better with the use of high efficiency detergent. Many students come to campus not even knowing how to do laundry—let alone what kind of detergent to buy or which cycle works best to save energy.
Although Duke students are often environmentally aware in other aspects of life, with laundry, the focus is just to get it washed and folded without turning a white shirt pink, or a size large sweatshirt into a size small. Our thoughtless actions may have on something much bigger: the state of our environment and the costs we pay for it.
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