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

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10An investigation into the domestic laundry habits in EuropeLaundering practicesIn this section the findings related to common practice are compiled. The surveyin chapter 2 indicates that the mean wash temperature in Norway andGreece does not appear to be as different as was found in a previous investigationin the SAVE II project. [8].The survey shows that consumers in Greece and especially Norway tend tochange clothes less often, but to compensate for this, they wash at higher temperatureswhen they do their laundry. This practice could lead to a higherlevel of laundering hygiene because of the fact that higher wash temperaturesyield better germ reduction.Apparently the middle-age generation, regardless of country, has the mostremedies to be used for laundry in the house. This could reflect several things.One postulate is that members of this generation (36-55 years of age) haveexperienced a huge growth in the number of possible remedies. They couldsee this as an opportunity to use less time and effort on their laundry, and itcould also be an expression of great faith in “the wonders of chemistry”. Further,they have the financial means that allows them simply to discard remediesthey do not like after having tried them once, or in worst case to buy newclothes if the remedy tried did not work quite as anticipated. Another explanationfor this collection of remedies could be the fact that people within thisage group are responsible for a family. There are simply more people in thehousehold, all with different needs and preferences.Another interesting age-related finding is the fact that there seem to be morehouseholds, which use bleaching agents among the youngest respondents inGreece and the Netherlands, while these remedies are more widely usedamong middle-aged households in Norway and Spain. The use of morebleaching agents by younger people implies that future hygiene may be safeguarded,as bleach improves the level of hygiene. In this respect we couldconclude that the ‘new’ generations in Greece and the Netherlands have amore hygienic laundering practice. Contradicting this is the fact that youngpeople also tend to be a group concerned about the environmental effects ofremedies they use. Extensive use of bleaching agents is not very environmentallyfriendly. Young people are not especially vulnerable to diseases causedby poor laundry hygiene, and should for this reason not be expected to be sofocused on hygiene issues that they rank them above environmental aspects.The use of softeners is an issue that is being debated in several fora. Both environmentaland allergenic effects are part of this discussion. It should be
Summary 11mentioned that the use of softeners and possible impacts of such use on theresults (either the washing effects or the hygienic quality) has not been takeninto account in this study.When washing with the most common domestic laundering processes used infour European countries, the hygienic quality measured after the washingprocess is more or less comparable for Greece, Norway and the Netherlands.The Spanish washing processes, by contrast, although low temperatures (15and 30 °C) are used, show a higher reduction in the level of micro-organismsafter washing. This effect is probably caused by an additional rinse in thewashing programme. This effect might represent an interesting finding fromthe point of view of the environment. Demanding more water is a lesser burdenthan washing at high(er) temperatures.AttitudesSome of the findings from the survey suggest that respondents in Spain aremore concerned about the appearance of clothes than the hygiene aspects.They also claim to be concerned about the environment, but their frequentchange of clothes followed by more frequent washing contradicts this. On theother hand, washing at low temperatures is a step in the right direction regardingthe environment.A general remark regarding attitudes is that there seems to be a high level ofconformity (compared to general experience from similar types of surveys)between the attitudes expressed by respondents and what they actually do.One deviation from this, however, is from some of the Spanish respondentswhere there seems to be some disharmony between what they think they do(positive effect on the environment when using low temperatures in the washingprocess) and what they actually do (changing clothes very often, and thusrunning the risk of subjecting nature to environmental impacts more often).There is relatively little use of special colour detergents in Greece. An interestingpoint related to this is that according to the survey, consumers inGreece do not think that modern detergents wash white “anyway”. The Greekconsumer wants detergents with bleaching agents or remedies with that effect.Do younger people tend to wash clothes more often than those who are older?We do not have a conclusive answer to this question. What the results show isthat younger people change clothes considerably more often than the oldergeneration. The difference is less, however, when compared to middle-agedpeople (36-55 years). The question is interesting nonetheless and the idea was
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Appendix ASurvey of domestic laundr
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Appendix A 1199. Which temperature
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Appendix A 1211.Working, in private
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Appendix BDeclaration detergentsGre
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Appendix B 125NorwayA) Omo Ultra Ta
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Appendix CSettings of the 15°C Was
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Appendix DSettings of the 30°C Was
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