Archive:000/Laundry

People like to have clean clothes. But how many resources does it take to uphold the "western" lifestyle of (for example) washing a shirt after wearing it no more than twice?

Research needed

Things to consider

• Soap and water involved
• Energy used by the washer
• Energy used in manufacturing the washer, divided by the number of washes expected of the lifespan

Approaches

• Calculate things per wash, or per clothing item washed
• Scale it up and see if it matches other datasets on energy usage by country by sector (...)( Pick any 'first-world' country where there's data on the energy collectively used by washing machines. Compare with the energy used in manufacturing washing machines. Issue: are the washing machines manufactured in the same country generally? Probably moreso than smaller items are, at least...right? )