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Global laundering practices: Alternatives to machine washing

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This article discusses laundering practices around the world including alternative methods such as washing by hand, airing, steaming, and dry-cleaning. These methods, which have received little attention in research, are often more suited toproducts made of wool, silk or other materials able to be cleaned using gentler techniques than more commonly used fibers such as cotton and synthetics. The material is based on extensive literature review from the past 20 years and reanalysis of previously unpublished survey data.The results show that washing by hand is common and that is the main laundering method in most rural areas of developing countries, but also significant for smaller portion of laundry in developed countries. Dry cleaning is less common, and mainly used for specific clothing items. Simple method such as airing can reduce the washing frequency, and thus reduce the environmental impacts resulting from the cleaning of clothes.

Billige og dårlige klær – få klager

I Norge har prisene på klær falt betydelig de siste tiårene. Forbrukerne har fått økt kjøpekraft og antallet klær vi kjøper har økt betraktelig (Klepp & Laitala, 2016, s. 67). I dag er den vanligste måten å skaffe klær på gjennom innkjøp av fast fashion, som kjennetegnes av store internasjonale selskap, vekt på markedsføring fremfor saklig informasjon, og vekt på raske endringer fremfor gode råvarer og kvalitet i produksjon. Omsetningen foregår i kjedebutikker med fokus på salg og salgsvarer og ikke på fagkunnskap. I denne rapporten vil vi se på hvordan denne utviklingen har påvirket vår tilfredshet med klærne. Billigere klær gjør at det er lettere for forbrukerne å kjøpe klær spontant, eller kjøpe klær som ikke er helt slik de ønsker (Greenpeace, 2016). Er det mange som angrer på kjøp de har gjort? Og hva gjør de dersom de angrer? Før vi analyserer spørsmålene vi stilte i SIFO survey 2017 om disse temaene, vil vi legge fram hvilke rettigheter forbrukerne har.

Clothing Reuse: The Potential in Informal Exchange

Reuse organised by non-profit and commercial actors is a strategy that recently received a lot of attention. This article discusses the question: what do we know about the amount of clothes that circulate outside the pecuniary markets? And is this amount increasing or declining? The questions are answered based on quantitative material from Norway. Almost twice as many had received used clothing as those who had bought used clothing, and our material do not indicate that this are declining. At the same time 59 per cent of Norwegian adults had neither received nor bought used clothing for themselves during the past two years. For children, inheritance is very common and the younger the children are, the more they inherit. The amount of the private clothing exchange is greater than the formal market in Norway. Therefore, when the goal is a more sustainable clothing consumption we need to include the parts of consumption that are not only related to money.

What’s the Problem? Odor-control and the Smell of Sweat in Sportswear

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Sport and fitness are increasing in popularity, and so is awareness of body odor. Both are aspects people wish to gain control over, as promised by the marketing of sportswear with odor-controlling properties. This article discusses how the heightened awareness of body odor has developed, and how unpleasant odor varies between textiles made of different materials. A sensory analysis by a consumer panel was used to evaluate the odor intensity of 13 different fabric samples taken mainly from sportswear.

The so-called odor-control textiles smelled less intense than similar polyester samples without such treatment. Wool and cotton smelled significantly less intense than both odor-control and polyester when the samples were sweaty or aired. After washing, the odor-control textiles had a level of odor intensity that was in between that of the cotton and woolen samples. The odor-control treatment reduced the smell, but not enough to make a difference on laundering frequency, and the textiles smelled still more strongly than wool.

Wool as an Heirloom: How Natural Fibres Can Reinvent Value in Terms of Money, Life-Span and Love

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This paper addresses a main challenge for natural fibres; falling prices and increased focus on quantity versus quality. This is a challenge not only related to economic issues and profit, but is also unsustainable in an environmental perspective and in light of the challenges the textile sector and the world face. The paper uses wool as an example and in a surprising approach links the history and century-old traditions of natural fibers to an environmental thinking which supplements the traditional thinking around circular economy and LCA. Fabrics with a long life are the ones that have the lowest environmental impact (Fletcher and Tham2015; Laitala2014). Longevity or lifespan is a complex phenomenon in which both technical and social, or aesthetic aspects, are intertwined.

Why Cotton as Linen? The Use of Wool in Beds in Norway

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Cotton is the “natural” choice and the dominating material in bed linen and sleepwear in Norway as in many other European countries. Regulation of temperature and humidity are important for good sleep, but they are not cotton’s strong points. There must have been other than the functional reasons which made cotton the winner in the bedding market. This article builds on literature about bedding in Norway from the 1800s and survey questions from 1951. We ask the question: what materials have been used and why? Wool was used in all bed textiles, both closest to the body and the layers over and under, from the cheapest chopped rags to the most costly textiles. The decline was seen throughout the 1800 and 1900s, but only in the 1960s does wool become totally absent as a next to skin bed textile. The cheap imports of cotton made cottage industry and home production unprofitable and the new emphasis on cleanliness gave cotton a clear leverage.

Klesforbruk i Norge

Denne rapporten gir en samlet gjennomgang av sentrale temaer omkring klesforbruket i Norge. Rapporten er skrevet for å danne grunnlag for en oppdatering av SIFOs Referansebudsjett innen klær og sko og samtidig gjøre kunnskapen om klesforbruk lettere tilgjengelig for alle interesserte. De enkelte kapitlene tar opp ulike sider ved forbruk av klær som har relevans for SIFOs Referansebudsjett. Vi diskuterer den totale mengden klær og klærs levetid, og går gjennomalle forbruksfasene fra anskaffelse, bruk i ulike anledninger, vedlikehold, gjenbruk og til avhending.

 Woolbed

Ingun Grimstad Klepp, Kirsi Laitala og Tone Skårdal Tobiasson Sammendrag Vi har undersøkt mulighetene for å gjeninnføre ull som sengetekstil. Barrierer for bruk av ull i nattøy og sengetøy blant norske og svenske forbrukere er…  Woolbed

Klærs levetid – LCA på liv og død

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Et av de mest fremtredende trekkene ved de siste 50 års tekstilforbruk er veksten i mengde. Import av klær har økt med 67 % i de siste tjue årene, og ligger nå på 15 kg per innbygger i Norge (SSB, 2014). Vi vet lite om denne veksten, men at den henger sammen med en nedgang i priser og en oppgang i kjøpekraft, er åpenbar. I samme periode har andelen av husholdningenes forbruk av klær og sko falt fra 6,6 % til 5,4 % av utgiftene (SSB, 1999, 2013). Til tross for denne nedgangen har klesforbruket målt i volum økt. Dette har ikke skjedd uten miljøkonsekvenser. Carbon trust (2011) har estimert at 3 % av globale klimautslipp, målt i CO2-ekvivalenter, stammer fra produksjon og vask av klær. I tillegg kommer utslipp av skadelige kjemikalier, uetiske arbeidsforhold, problemer med dyrevelferd, og høyt forbruk av energi, vann og land-arealer (Fletcher, 2008).