Laundry Practices Research Articles

Global microplastic fiber pollution from domestic laundry

The rapid expansion of fast fashion has significantly increased microplastic fiber (MPF) release during laundry practices, accounting for approximately one-third of primary microplastics entering the ocean. Currently, a significant gap exists in global-scale research on the release of MPFs from washing textiles. This study introduces an innovative empirical model to assess the spatial distribution of MPF emissions. The model estimates an annual global emission of 5.69 million tons of MPFs from laundry. Of this total, machine washing accounts for the majority (93.7 %), with hand washing contributing the remaining 6.3 %. As the primary source of MPF pollution, Asia's emissions reach 3.71 million tons, far exceeding those of North America (1.18 million tons) and Europe (0.45 million tons). The primary issue is that wastewater management efficiency varies significantly worldwide. In Asia, there is persistently high discharge of MPFs into natural waters, and the removal efficiency of wastewater treatment plants is still comparatively low. In contrast, the United States and many European countries exhibit better MPF retention. The global nature of this challenge mandates international collaboration for comprehensive environmental conservation. Our study provides the first high-resolution global distribution map of MPF emissions and discharge into natural waters, establishing a data foundation for global and regional management of microplastics originating from household laundry sources.

Advancing sustainable laundry practices utilizing waste heat from commercial laundry facilities

To enhance efficiency and reduce operational costs in mechanical drying for energy equipment, this study introduces a novel sustainable laundering approach using an innovative waste heat recovery (WHR) method in commercial laundry facilities utilizing gas dryers and boilers as waste heat sources. The proposed WHR system serves as a pre-dehumidification stage, where laundry undergoes centrifugation, initial drying in the WHR chamber, and final drying with a gas dryer. Building on established foundational data and models for heat and moisture transfer from previous research, this study rigorously evaluates the performance of the proposed system. The evaluation integrates three mathematical models to simulate the WHR laundry drying system: heat exchange, laundry drying, and mass movement. The laundry drying model utilizes the thermodynamic energy of moisture for water transfer. Various simulations are conducted, adjusting the laundry's forward speed and interval. The effectiveness of the system is assessed using three indicators: quantity of laundry processed, latent heat load, and degree of laundry dryness. The simulations reveal that the system can handle an annual latent heat load between 970.1 and 1827.1 GJ, corresponding to a reduction in natural gas consumption of approximately 21,560–40,600 m3 and achieving laundry dryness levels of 40 %–68.2 %.

Towards Modern Laundry Practice in Urban Socialist Poland

Drawing on ethnographic data and applying practice theory, this article discusses the emergence of modern laundry practice in urban socialist Poland. We follow an “elemental” approach to social practices: practice consists of meanings, materials, and competences. We analyze the transition of laundering from modern meanings (high standards of cleanliness), through modern materials (running water, washing machine) towards modern competences (individual improvisations, finally adjusted to an effortless laundry procedure corresponding to the capabilities of automatic washing machines). We argue that relations between elements of social practice such as tension and adjustment affect the transitions of the social practice. The transitional cleanliness practices involved men, due to the physical strength necessary to balance the tension between high standards of cleanliness and the lack of domestic material infrastructure.

Shedding off-the-grid: The role of garment manufacturing and textile care in global microfibre pollution

Textile fibres are abundant anthropogenic pollutants. These fibres enter aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric environments, and biota. Textile fibres pose biological and chemical threats to the environments they pollute. Laundry is a primary source of synthetic and natural textile fibres. Fibre shed from laundry performed in electric washing machines is well characterised. However, over 50% of the global population does not have regular access to an electric washing machine. Without regular access to an electric washing machine, people launder ‘off-the-grid’ with locally specific methods. Their variable laundry methods present a significant challenge to quantifying microfibre shed. This study makes an original contribution to studies of fibre shedding. First, it details laundry protocols in a Global South community. Second, it assesses how textile structure influences fibre shedding independent of laundry practices. To do this, we deploy a hand laundry protocol learned during ethnographic fieldwork. We show that hand-washed garments shed fibres in numbers comparable to machine-washed garments. We show how garment construction (knit and weave) influences fibre shedding. We find fibre type (cotton or polyester) does not. People who hand wash clothing cannot change practices contributing to textile fibre pollution. Thus, industry must act to minimise fibreshed from laundry at the global scale. This entails transforming the design, manufacture, and sale of textiles.

Examining Practices of Apparel Use and End of Life in New Zealand

Throughout a garment’s life cycle, the use and end-of-life phases are crucial in determining its environmental impact, due to the resources that would be utilised and waste produced during maintenance and disposal. Consumption patterns differ among countries and cultures; however, in New Zealand, there is limited published information to date. To address this gap, an anonymous online poll was conducted examining laundry practices, lifetime wear events and disposal practices for woollen and synthetic-blend knitted jumpers, which are predominantly used as winter clothing in New Zealand. The survey revealed considerable differences in the ways woollen and synthetic garments were worn, maintained and discarded. Over its lifetime, although woollen garments were worn a greater number of times, they were washed less. At the end of life, both types of jumpers showed significant reuse percentages. This information is useful for accurately modelling the inventory needed for assessing the environmental implication of apparel, using the life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. By comparing New Zealand’s washing and disposal practises to those of other countries, this study found significant differences, highlighting the need for country-specific data for future LCAs.

Laundry power and care: Relational materialism, temporalities and spatialisation of communal laundering

Laundering activities enact a range of socio-material relations and spatialisation of infrastructures such as provision of machines, water, energy, laundry and lately digitalisation. Drawing on a case study on communal laundry facilities in Sweden, this paper focuses on socio-material relations and explores laundry practices in Swedish rental housing, aiming for a theoretical contribution in the field of care, which could incorporate spatial and temporal aspects to be more inclusive. Theoretically based in topologies of power, with sensitivity to processes of spatialisation and temporalities, the analyses show how decisions about design, space and technologies influence everyday life of tenants. The paper illuminates how availability and access to laundry facilities were conformed and individualised to reach expected standards. Laundry spaces were subject to digitalisation and automation technologies introduced to meet efficiency and environmental demands and handle perceived problematic tenant practices. Conclusions are that relational materialism in the field of care and scripting processes would benefit from explicitly including theoretical thinking about space and temporality, conceptualised as choreography. The approach “thinking with care” brought backgrounded laundering phenomena to the fore and pointed out laundering as a matter we should care about. Digitalisation and automation facilitated control of shared laundry spaces and ambitions to individualise laundry made private spaces, such as bathrooms, more attractive to host laundering activities but backgrounded social dimensions of communal laundering.

Quantifying pathogen infection risks from household laundry practices.

AimsContaminated laundry can spread infections. However, current directives for safe laundering are limited to healthcare settings and not reflective of domestic conditions. We aimed to use quantitative microbial risk assessment to evaluate household laundering practices (e.g., detergent selection, washing and drying temperatures, and sanitizer use) relative to log10 reductions in pathogens and infection risks during the clothes sorting, washer/dryer loading, folding and storing steps.Methods and ResultsUsing published data, we characterized laundry infection risks for respiratory and enteric pathogens relative to a single user contact scenario and a 1.0 × 10−6 acceptable risk threshold. For respiratory pathogens, risks following cold water wash temperatures (e.g. median 14.4℃) and standard detergents ranged from 2.2 × 10−5 to 2.2 × 10−7. Use of advanced, enzymatic detergents reduced risks to 8.6 × 10−8 and 2.2 × 10−11 respectively. For enteric pathogens, however, hot water, advanced detergents, sanitizing agents and drying are needed to reach risk targets.Significance and Impact of the StudyConclusions provide guidance for household laundry practices to achieve targeted risk reductions, given a single user contact scenario. A key finding was that hand hygiene implemented at critical control points in the laundering process was the most significant driver of infection prevention, additionally reducing infection risks by up to 6 log10.

Practice Theory in Industrial Design and Innovation: Materials, Meanings, and Competencies of Electric Wringer-Washers in Turkey from 1950 to the 2000s

According to practice theory, practices or “doings” that use designed products play a significant role in shaping daily life. Practice theory considers the workings of the dynamic two-way relationships between social structures and human agency. Accordingly, users’ routinized practices constitute a social structure that is commonly characterized by three elements: materials, such as tangible physical things, artifacts, and infrastructures; competencies, which include the know-how and “doing” of practice; and meanings, which encompass symbolic notions and emotions that are attached to the practices or artifacts. Adopting a practice theory approach, my article focuses on user practices around wringer-washers in Turkey, including materials, uses, meanings, and re-uses in the daily lives of Turkish women and families. Historical case studies of laundry practices with wringer-washers explicitly indicate how and under what circumstances user practices can emerge, endure, evolve, and transform into other practices. Prioritizing the involvement of designers, producers, and users in the coproduction of practice processes, I argue in this article that new designs and design innovations are inextricably linked with the user practices that they engender.

Estimated incidence rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) linked to laundered reusable healthcare textiles (HCTs) in the United States and United Kingdom over a 50-year period: Do the data support the efficacy of approved laundry practices?

Estimated incidence rate of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) linked to laundered reusable healthcare textiles (HCTs) in the United States and United Kingdom over a 50-year period: Do the data support the efficacy of approved laundry practices?

Chemotherapy education: current practices of oncology nurses counseling patients.

PurposeChemotherapy education provided by nurses to patients is a fundamental component of high-quality cancer care. The Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI ®) provides guidance on treatment-related aspects of chemotherapy education (diagnosis, goals, regimen, schedule, adverse events, follow-up), but recommendations on practical lifestyle issues lack evidence and standardization.MethodsAn anonymous, voluntary, uncompensated survey was distributed in October 2019 to 12,995 oncology certified nurses who report working in adult outpatient clinic/infusion room settings. An electronic survey was designed to determine current practice in nurse-patient counseling related to lifestyle and behavior during chemotherapy treatment.ResultsSurvey responses were obtained from 1243 oncology certified nurses (9.6%). Nurses reported that their education practice was influenced by their institution and coworkers (other nurses or oncologists). Most nurses (> 50%) reported counseling on all topics asked. Most frequently counseled topics included water intake, infection monitoring, alcohol consumption, exercise, and mucositis. Less frequently counseled topics included hair dye, laundry practices, and mask wearing (pre-pandemic).ConclusionThis study highlighted that chemotherapy nurses routinely counsel patients on important topics that lack evidence-based recommendations. In the absence of evidence, nurses rely on learned education practices, most commonly institutional guides or recommendations adopted from other nurses or oncologists. On important topics that lack evidence, expert panel review and development of consensus guidelines could standardize and improve the education process for both oncology nurses and patients.

Assessment of Safe Handling and Disposal of Laundry in Hemodialysis Unit

Handling laundry is a major task that must be managed safely by health care workers (HCW) for maintaining a green hospital environment. Laundry processing, especially in hemodialysis units is a source of many hazards, especially bacteriological ones. This study aimed to assess safe laundry handling and disposing of in hemodialysis units. A descriptive research design was utilized. Subject A convenience sample of 46 nurses (nursing and auxiliary members) was enrolled in this study. Materials and method: The current study was conducted in dialysis units at the following Hospitals; Students’ University and Health Insurance (Gamal Abd-El-Naser); Alexandria. Tool: One tool was utilized practices of laundry handling and disposing of in hemodialysis units: Observational Checklist”; it was developed by the researchers after a thorough review of related literature. It comprised two parts, Part I: Personal data as age, gender, years of experience, employment position, educational level, and previous attendance in-service training regarding safe laundry management. Part II: Safety Laundry Handling and Disposing Observational Checklist. Result: This study reflected satisfactory safe practices level of laundry handling scores in both settings. While, no significant correlation was detected between both settings regarding safe practices of laundry handling and disposal, while a significant relationship between overall practice levels and staff socio-demographic characteristics except gender was noticed. Conclusion: A significant correlation between the availability of all-time PPE and laundry processing; with satisfactory scores for applying safety laundry practices was noticed. Recommendations: Periodic monitoring for staff as well as continuous training programs regarding safe laundry processing must take place. All linen must be handled, stored, and transported in a manner that maintains a green environment for all patients, health care workers, as well as visitors for the sustainability of health and safety in hemodialysis units.

Futures in Practice: Regimes of Engagement and Teleoaffectivity

The article triangulates Schatzki’s practice theory (2002) and Thévenot’s (2001) ‘regimes of engagement’ with the nascent field of ‘social futures’ or future-oriented cultural sociology (e.g. Coleman and Tutton 2017; Mische 2009). We present a reading of Thévenot’s regimes of engagement that is ontologically compatible with Schatzki’s account of social practices and argue that practices are more or less enmeshed in distinct regimes of engagement. We aver that while people engage reality through distinct regimes of engagement they do so, to follow Schatzki, primarily in the context of social practices. We then articulate this account with Giuliana Mandich’s (2019) work on the different modes of engagement with the future, or forms of reflexive projectivity, that are expressed through Thévenot’s regimes: that of practical anticipation for the regime of the familiar; of probability for the regime of the plan; of possibility for the regime of justification; and of discovery for the regime of exploration. This synthesis enables a practice theoretical account of the different modes through which actors engage with the future that is, we suggest, analytically superior to both Thévenot’s and Schatzki’s tendency towards a mono-dimensional view of agents’ projectivity towards the future. We illustrate the synthesis of practices, regimes of engagement and modes of projectivity chiefly through a study of domestic laundry practice conducted by Southerton and Mylan (2018). We suggest this theoretical development may be productively applied to practice theoretical work informing understanding of issues such as sustainable consumption, mobility and energy use, as well as social change more broadly.

Doing laundry in consumption corridors: wellbeing and everyday life

In this article, we explore the possibilities for a transformation toward more sustainable energy usage by engaging with mundane activities, such as doing the laundry. Across European households, laundry practices rely on social norms and material arrangements, which makes these practices rather “sticky” and resistant to change. Through the lens of consumption corridors, and accounting for wellbeing in relation to the basic needs of participation, health, and autonomy, we study laundry practices and their transformation in 73 Finnish and Swiss households that took part in a challenge to reduce their weekly wash cycles by half over a four-week period in autumn 2018. By using both qualitative and quantitative data, we analyze how participants defined minimum and maximum standards for cleanliness and convenience, for themselves and for others, over the course of the challenge period. Specifically, we consider how the sequencing of tasks associated with “doing the laundry” changed, as well as the significance of social relations and sensations in representations of social norms. The participants’ experiences helped uncover how setting limits toward consumption corridors can be achieved, whereby reductions in consumption can result in sustainable wellbeing.

Changes to household practices pre- and post-occupancy in an Australian low-carbon development

Limiting study to a narrow range of energy and water using activities is insufficient to provide a holistic understanding of household resource flows. Consideration of a wide range of social practices is needed. With the rise of low-carbon developments featuring energy or water efficient technology and design around the world, the way residents interact with the design and technology and community is vital to understanding if these households and developments will meet their intended design goals. The opportunity to study resident's pre-and post-occupancy resource consumption is a unique opportunity to examine how design, technology and community influence household practices. This article studied 13 Australian household's practices of waste management, food shopping, item purchasing, travel and laundry practices for two weeks before and after moving into a low-carbon development, while the home system of practice is in a stable phase. This provides an opportunity to comment on the state of interlocking of resident's home system, from lightly interlocked to highly. Post-occupancy, the presence of solar panels influenced when some residents put the washing machine and tumble drier on, however only when the resident was home. Many residents are conscious of putting these on during the day or use timers where they had not previously. Changes to resident's travel practices were not as broad as they anticipated before the move, while recycling rates increased, influenced by a supportive community and shopping practices became more localised through the use of smaller food retailers. Results show that resident's resource use is heavily influenced by their work and socialising routines, which are not commonly focused on when attempting to change household resource use behaviours. A traditional focus on psychological approaches targeting values and attitudes fails to adequately address these factors, whereby a social practice theory approach allows for their consideration in influencing resource use in the home.

Character learning model in hotel practice learning based on Minahasa local wisdom for students of Tourism Department

Life values can be obtained from the local wisdom of Minahasaculture mapalus. The purpose of this study is to establish the institution hotel- based hospitality practice learning model. This must be practiced by all graduates. The design of this model must be more operationally developed to make its application easier. It must be able to set up steps of character education in the local wisdom-based learning for improving the quality of hospitality industry human resources. In this study, the combination of research & development method and action research method was applied. The results show that these criteria have not been fully applied by the students in food service, food processing, front office, house keeping and laundry practice. In order for this local wisdom-based character learning to be applied, the director has to make it one of the highest quality cultures of the institution as a part of curriculum.

Imagining Mundane Futures

When people move country, they experience new social, infrastructural, and ambient contingencies, which enables them to imagine otherwise unknowable possible futures ‘at home’. In this article, we mobilise a design anthropological approach to show how collaboration with temporary migrants can generate understandings that generate insights regarding future sustainable products in emerging economies. We draw on research with temporary Indonesian student migrants in Australia, which explored how they envisioned their possible domestic futures through their changing laundry practices.

Time-shifting laundry practices in a smart grid perspective: a cross-cultural analysis of Pakistani and Danish middle-class households

Future smart infrastructure development, in both developing and developed countries, is hinged on demand management and response strategies with consumers actively involved in time-shifting electricity consumption for improved efficiency. This paper presents a qualitative, interview-based, comparative study of how homeowners adapt their practices to the changing systems of electricity provision in two countries, Pakistan and Denmark. It reveals that household practices like laundering are flexible, highly contextualised and embedded in the wider socio-material and cultural context. In Denmark, time-shifting of laundering in households with photovoltaics is done voluntarily and closely interwoven with the temporal rhythms of the common dual-income household, as well as the natural cycles of the sun and weather, and is in most cases based on some degree of automation. In Pakistan, blackout schedules dictate time-shifting of most practices. Large family sizes and nuanced clothing make laundering more complex, socially bound and time-consuming; however, joint family systems, provision of house-staff and outsourcing make it more time-flexible and less dependent on automation and electricity-use. Using theories on temporalities of practices in a cross-cultural analysis highlights the significance of local socio-material and cultural context in the performance, bundling and synchronisation of practices. While practice theories prove useful in cross-cultural comparison of temporalities of household practices and demand, further theory development is needed to conceptualise practices as shared or socially differentiated entities in varying cultural contexts. This has implications for demand management policies proposed in smart-grid transitions as well as in the possible cross-cultural transfer of smart technology and demand response strategies.

System analysis including aspects of governmental policies, business models and product/service design

For today’s transformation towards a circular and resource-efficient economy, an understanding is needed of how changes in socio-technical systems affect resource efficiency (RE). This paper suggests an approach to analyse the RE of socio-technical systems and the related Product-Service Systems (PSSs). A conceptual framework consisting of elements of business models, governmental policies and product and service design is developed. Laundry practices in Sweden serve as the context for a case study. The results indicate that asset sharing is most resource-efficient to facilitate domestic laundry practices, followed by PSSs and individual ownership coming last. This type of analysis helps to understand the role of PSS for RE. Future research focuses on dynamic modelling of socio-technical systems and their impact on RE.

Clean laundry with pure conscience—A study on laundry practices among Finnish consumers

AbstractThe previous study concerning laundry practices in Finland was published 16 years ago. Since that time, many pro‐environmental debates have been going on and sustainable actions have been implemented in many areas of individual lives and households. The purpose of this study is to investigate the textile laundering practices of Finnish consumers and their attitudes toward clothing care procedures. This study discusses how laundry habits could be developed into a more sustainable direction. The data for this research were gathered through an online enquiry that consisted of structured multiple‐choice questions. The data were obtained from 1,841 persons of whom 97.5% were women (n = 1,795). The data were analyzed by statistical means using the SPSS program. The data show that, despite media attention and debate about textile care procedures, there still are factors in laundering that burden the environment. From a sustainability point of view, some improvements exist when comparing to the situation 16 years ago, but washing machines still are seldom filled to their full capacity and consumers, being unaware of water hardness, administer excessive amounts of detergent. The current life situations of the household members seem to be major factors influencing laundry habits and sustainable actions. Especially, young people and families with children would benefit from information and instructions on laundry practices. Topics could contain knowledge about water hardness and proper dosing of detergent, filling the washing machine, washing temperatures, drying methods, and saving energy. Furthermore, general promotion of gender equality is important because household work and laundering is strikingly women‐performed work.

Sustainable laundry practices can aid the fight against plastics pollution

Sustainable laundry practices can aid the fight against plastics pollution