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There is more to laundry
than just soap and water
Ecology North shares cost reduction tips in Fort Providence
Roxanna Thompson Northern News Services Published Thursday, March 1, 2012
On Feb. 11 the Yellowknife-based organization held its first laundry cost reduction information session in Fort Providence. Ecology North is encouraging people to make a few simple changes while doing laundry to help save money and the environment, said Kim Rapati, the organization's laundry project co-ordinator. One of the first changes people can make is washing in cold water instead of hot, said Rapati. Eighty-five to 95 per cent of the electricity costs associated with doing laundry come from heating hot water. The ideal way of washing laundry is in a high-efficiency front-load washer. A new front-load washer uses 25 per cent less energy and 35 to 50 per cent less water compared to the newest top loaders, Rapati said. Front-load washers also have a better spin cycle so clothing comes out drier and is easier to dry, she said. After the laundry is washed, people can save more money by hanging it to dry either inside or outside. Approximately $200 can be saved in a household each year by hanging laundry to dry instead of using a dryer, said Rapati. Soft water Ecology North is also encouraging people to use less laundry detergent. The territory has soft water so residents can use a little less detergent than suggested compared to what is needed in hard water, she said. "It's really good to make sure you don't use too much soap," said Rapati. Too much soap can actually harm front-load washing machines, she said. Rapati shared all of this information with Fort Providence residents through conversations and fun activities at the information session. Rapati set up a laundry line in the recreation centre along with paper cutouts of clothing that children could colour and hang up. Residents who came to the session could also play a trivia game where they spun a dial on a mock laundry machine and answered the trivia question on the piece of clothing the dial pointed to. Anyone who answered six questions correctly received a prize. The prizes included bags of clothespins, laundry detergent and small collapsible drying racks. "People had fun doing it," she said. Twenty-three people also filled out surveys about their laundry habits in order to be entered into a raffle for either a large outdoor or indoor drying rack. Phoebe Parent and Phoebe Bonnetrouge were the raffle winners. A success With approximately 30 people visiting the session, Rapati said it was a success. "I had lots of good conversations with people on how they do their laundry," she said. Most people already wash with cold water and many like to hang their clothes out to dry because of the fresh scent that comes with it, although not having an outdoor line can be a barrier to that, she said.
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