While we are cleaning our clothes, we are polluting our air. A typical U.S. household does about 300 loads of laundry every year and because our cleaning habits are bad for the environment, scientists want us to cut back.
Not only does washing our clothes this much use an excessive amount of energy, it also spews out tons of carbon dioxide. This is bad for the environment, and it wears down our clothes, which adds clothing to our landfills. Researchers report that the E.U. alone produces 2.2 million tons of “textile waste” each year.