How often do you wash your clothes in a week? Are you guilty of throwing a few pieces of clothing into your washing machine and turning the machine on for a full load cycle?
According to Energy Star, older top-loading machines use around 40 gallons of water to wash a full load of clothes, while newer standard models use as little as 27 gallons.
Even if you’re using an efficient Energy-Star washer, they still use around 14 gallons of water per wash. That’s a a lot of water for just one wash – not including the chemicals found in your detergent.
I met with Chu from For The Love Of Laundry, a laundry company who wanted to make a difference for the environment and consumers.
Established in 2011, For The Love Of Laundry set out with the mission to become a trusted dry cleaner in Singapore and to provide the best care for their customers.
Most of the dry cleaners in Singapore use a petroleum-based solvent (Perc), which damages clothes over time and also poses severe health and environmental risks.
In fact, the use of Perc is banned in the state of California and has been classified as a toxic air pollutant and potential carcinogen by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
GreenEarth Technology
For The Love Of Laundry was the first to use GreenEarth technology in Singapore, and they are still the only company in Singapore to clean purely with GreenEarth, a toxin-free technology that is better for you, your clothes, and the environment.
GreenEarth technology uses liquid silicone to wash your clothes and is a safe all-natural cleaner derived from sand, which gently penetrates fabric to rinse away dirt in a way that neither water nor Perc can.
Liquid silicone is non-allergenic and mild enough to rub on your skin. In fact, Chu is sure you already have – liquid silicone is the main ingredient commonly found in everyday shampoos and body lotions.
Inspired by this environmental game changer, the founders of For The Love Of Laundry wanted to look for a dry cleaner in Singapore that cleans with this technology.
Realising that no one offered it, they decided that the technology had to be introduced to Singapore too.
New Kid On The Block
Even though For The Love Of Laundry turns 7 this year, they are still one of the younger dry cleaners locally.
However, Chu remains optimistic. “This works in our favour because we’re able to see the industry with fresh eyes and do things differently from the more established players. We take pride in not just being your average dry cleaners, but dry cleaners with a difference.”
It is a competitive market and For The Love Of Laundry had their fair share of challenges.
As a new player in the market, they started off without any customers and had to slowly win the customers over by convincing them to do their part for the environment. Passion is what drives Chu and her team to push through.
“As a dry cleaner that cares about the environment, we have to educate our customers on the ills of dry-cleaning with Perc and the reason we try to minimise the use of disposable plastic.”
Even though cleaning with GreenEarth technology increases their operating costs as compared to using conventional chemicals, the team believes that “this is the right business decision as it’s better for our customers, our staff and the environment. This is at the core of what we do.”
More Than Just Dry Cleaning
For The Love Of Laundry is big on going green and this includes recycling.
An estimated 8-10 billion hangers are produced and sold worldwide every year, with only about 15% recycled. This staggering amount was shocking for the team and they wanted to find a way to encourage customers to return their hangers and donate to a better cause.
This green initiative thus became the driving force behind their donations to other charity funds.
Chu and the team behind For The Love Of Laundry are passionate and they want to be the region’s most loved and leading cleaning company. It’s more than just a dry cleaning service they provide – they want to be the leader in going green and protecting the environment however they can.
In the near future, Chu explains that they have plans to also expand their services to include cleaning of non clothing items, such as leather bags, accessories, shoes, carpets and more.
For more information on For The Love Of Laundry, click here.
