Persopnal Cleanliness and the Environment (toxic, environmental, energy, water) - Sustainable living, ecology, conservation, local agriculture - City-Data Forum

jtur88 · 11-25-2008, 12:09 AM

Do you really need a shower every day, or are you simply addicted to it, or do it by force of habit? What is the envrionmental impact of a hot shower, and how often do you really need one?

How long do you wear things before you put them in the laundry? Do your clothes really need to be washed that often, and what is the environmental impact of a washer and dryer load?

Is our addiction to cleanliness one of the main culprits in the downslide of our environment?

annerk · 11-25-2008, 05:35 AM

I take a shower almost every day, although I usually only wash my hair every other day. I try to keep the shower quick and turn off the water while lathering up. I haven't filled my soaking tub for a good bath in almost a year, as it uses at least five times the amount of water as a shower.

I usually wear my pants twice before laundering (except if they get dirty from cooking/cleaning or being outside in the heat of the summer) but tops and underwear get washed after one wearing. Bath towels are used three times before laundering.

Laundry normally gets done in cold water, bath towels are done on hot/cold. Front load washer for lower water use, usual detergent is All Free and Clear. I air dry about half of my clothes.

I don't think our "addiction to cleanliness" in itself is a bad thing, there are definitely health benefits to having good personal hygiene. But the over use of anti-bacterial soaps and cleaners are very likely contributing to the explosion of MRSA and other "bad" bacteria related illnesses as they become more and more resistant to various cleaners and antibiotics.

masonsdaughter · 11-25-2008, 05:58 AM

I take a bath every day and wear outer clothes two days before washing. Hot day, enclosed space, unwashed bodies, now that has an environmental empact all it's own, and you DON'T want to experience it.

GregW · 11-25-2008, 06:40 AM

I'll back up masonsdaughter. NYC subway, hot June night, unwashed destitute. Yeah, that is a locally degraded environment. Unfortunately one of the bundles of cloth was infected with gangrene.

Maybe we take personal cleanliness to an extreme, but keeping the environment next to your skin free of detrimental bacteria, fungus and toxics is the basis of healthy living. Poor health leads to a decreased environmental sensitivity. This is understandable.

JeffreySH · 11-25-2008, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtur88

Do you really need a shower every day, or are you simply addicted to it, or do it by force of habit? What is the envrionmental impact of a hot shower, and how often do you really need one?

How long do you wear things before you put them in the laundry? Do your clothes really need to be washed that often, and what is the environmental impact of a washer and dryer load?

Is our addiction to cleanliness one of the main culprits in the downslide of our environment?

One of the main culprits? Absolutely not.

I take a shower every morning, and sometimes again in the evening if I've been doing physical work that has me all sweaty and stinky. But I'm not a person who stands in the shower for an hour, either. For me, it's more like 3 minutes. In addition, there are a lot of "water saving" shower heads that don't use very much water.

Also, my family doesn't throw clothes in the hamper after the first wearing. If they're dirty, yes. If they stink, yes. Other than that, hang them up and re-wear them.

Personally, I believe there are a LOT of things - other than our hygiene habits - that are FAR more harmful to the environment.

Gunluvver2 · 11-25-2008, 11:20 AM

I drove a truck over the road for close to twenty years. A daily shower was not always possible. Since I got off the road in 1989 I make it a point to take at least two HOT SHOWERS every day. Believe me if I don't take a shower at least once a day you do not want to be anywhere around me. Not just because of the odor but I get awfully grouchy when deprived of the daily application of soap and water.

GL2

NCyank · 11-25-2008, 11:31 AM

I shower almost daily but will wear clothes more than once if not dirty...except undies and socks.

The combination of showering less than once a day and washing clothes less often is not something I intend to bring up with my teenage children. In fact, the more showers DS takes the better. The resulting environmental impact means that I'll ride in an enclosed car with him or sit next to him at dinner. Otherwise, his personal environment would be most unpleasant. We already have to air out his room from time to time.

jtur88 · 11-25-2008, 12:03 PM

The replies have astonished me. First, there IS a middle ground between a daily bath and an annual bath, so the reference to the reprobate on the bus is not relevant to the discussion.

I would like to see a link to a professional opionion that there would be any degree of detriment whatsoever to either personal health or public health, if people bathed every other day instead of dailly. Abesnt such a peer-reviewed opinion, the health issue is not relevant.

A hot shower uses as much energy, probably quite a bit more, than leaving the fridge door open for 5 minutes, or leaving a light on all day. None of you would argue that such oversights would be tolerable in your energy-frugal lives, yet you have no problem with the daily shower, which does nothing but stroke you own sensitivity. The fact that you do not want to sit on a bus next to a person who did not shower in the past 24 hours or put on a clean shirt that day is not a compelling environmental issue of global import. But reducing our consumption by 50-billion showers and ten-billion loads of laundry a year might be. We could save maybe a trillion gallons of water a year, just by cutting the shower and laundry frequency in half.

annerk · 11-25-2008, 03:51 PM

And some people are advocating not no-poo (washing hair with water only--ever) or pee-poo (washing hair with urine

). It might be healthier for the environment, but it's still not something tolerable in polite society. There has to be a middle ground. I don't see a problem with taking a short shower each day.

JeffreySH · 11-25-2008, 04:11 PM

Part of the problem that I see is that people have trouble finding a good balance.

Some environmental extremists sound like the only thing that would make them happy is if all human beings ceased to exist.

Then there are people who seem to think it doesn't matter at all whether we try to care for the environment.

I'm not going to stop taking daily showers. But I take short showers, and I engage in all manner of other environmentally friendly things. Perfect? No. Green? Pretty much.