| 1. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Mind the (reporting) gap—a scoping study comparing measured laundry decisions with self-reported laundry behaviour
- 2023
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Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; 28:9, s. 1211-1222
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Many environmental assessments of consumer products and household services rely on self-reported data. Life cycle assessments of domestic laundering are no exception. However, potential discrepancies between self-reported behaviour and actual everyday decisions are seldom investigated due to practical challenges in collecting relevant data. This means that environmental impacts relying on such self-reported data are much more uncertain than previously acknowledged. Method: Laundering data was collected at the Chalmers’ HSB Living lab (CHSBLL), a combined multi-family house and research facility in Gothenburg. The collection was both done passively (through the washing machines) as well as actively (through surveys to the tenants). RFID-readers were also installed in the machines and a number of clothing items tagged, allowing for identification. The site-specific data was later supplemented with a large statistical representative study for domestic laundering of Swedish households. This unique data quality allowed the comparison of passively collected data with survey data from tenants in a real-life setup, while validating the results from a national perspective. Result and conclusions: The results suggest that consumers have trouble remembering personal choices regarding domestic laundering, meaning that self-reported data are more uncertain than previously thought. In general, the participants overestimated the amount of laundry they washed and underestimated their frequency of washing. Additionally, many participants showed an interest in changing to alternative wash programs although this change failed to materialize when they were presented with this option in real-life. The findings have potential consequences for environmental assessments and implicate those previous estimations underestimate emissions per kg laundry washed.
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| 2. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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No stain, no pain – A multidisciplinary review of factors underlying domestic laundering
- 2022
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Ingår i: Energy Research and Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296. ; 84
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Today's washing appliances are much more efficient than those of a decade ago, but the environmental benefits of this efficiency are counteracted by shifts in consumer behavior. Initiatives to reverse these shifts have often proven futile, indicating a basic lack of clarity on why we clean our clothes. This article is an explorative review with the aim of identifying dominant factors that shape how we do our laundry. The results can be used both as an introduction to laundry research in general, as well as a baseline for future interdisciplinary research. Three guiding principles are presented that describe the most influential factors underlying laundering: (1) technology changes conventions, while social context dictates technology acceptance; (2) technological solutions are often suggested to influence consumers, but individual concerns seem to override the effect of such interventions; (3) consumers are guided by social conventions, rooted in underlying psychological dynamics (e.g. moral dimensions of cleanliness). Looking at these principles it is understandable why interventions for sustainability are failing. Many interventions address only a part of a principle while disregarding other parts. For example, consumers are often informed of the importance of sustainability (e.g. “washing at lower temperature is good for the environment”), while questions of social belonging are left out (e.g. “many of your neighbors and friends wash at lower temperature”). To increase the possibility of a lasting change, it would be beneficial if instead all of the three principles could be addressed given the specific consumer group of interest.
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| 3. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Pro-environmental behaviour is undermined by disgust sensitivity: The case of excessive laundering
- 2024
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Ingår i: PLoS ONE. - 1932-6203 .- 1932-6203. ; 19:6 June
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The amount of laundry washed by European consumers has grown excessively for reasons that cannot be explained by demographics alone. Initiatives trying to curb this trend have repeatedly failed. Previous studies have largely overlooked the psychological dimensions of laundering behaviour. In three separate studies we investigate how disgust, shame, cleanliness norms and environmental identity, mediated through a set of preceding behaviours, affect washing frequency. Our results highlight how conflicting psychological goals between disgust sensitivity and pro-environmental identity can undermine willingness to change laundry behaviour. Policy recommendations are suggested, and future research challenges are discussed.
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| 4. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Sharing is caring - the importance of capital goods when assessing environmental impacts from private and shared laundry systems in Sweden
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1614-7502 .- 0948-3349. ; 26, s. 1085-1099
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: Previous studies on environmental impacts from domestic laundry have tended to focus solely on private washing machines and detergent. However, public procurement guidelines about the construction of laundry spaces may also be important. This article aims to expand the scope of previous work so that it also includes tumble drying and the building space. By doing this, we examine the potential for shared systems (which are common in Sweden) to reduce the environmental impacts of laundry activities, in comparison with consumer choices associated with machine operation (i.e., wash temperature and amount of detergent). Methods: An LCA model was created using product information data from the European Union. Emissions from building use were taken from Swedish cradle-to-grave reports on energy-efficient buildings. The resulting model was run with additional sensitivity analysis of the variables, and the associated emissions from each of the scenarios were calculated. Results and discussion: On average, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for private laundries in Sweden were estimated to be 190 g CO eq./kg laundry (washed and dried). If a shared laundry was used instead, the resulting emissions decreased by approximately 26%. The greatest contribution to GHG emissions was the use of detergent (22–33% of total emissions), followed by capital goods (11–38% of total emissions). Conclusion: Deciding to construct shared laundries in newly built apartment buildings in Sweden, rather than in-unit machines, would reduce the emissions from domestic laundry for these tenants by approximately 26%. This is because materials used for manufacturing whitegoods, as well as the emissions associated with the building itself, play a much bigger role than previously thought. Additionally, since the cleaning efficiency of warm water and some of the components used in detergents rises with temperature, emissions from domestic laundering could for some consumers be reduced further by washing at higher temperature but with less detergent. This pattern could be seen in Sweden within regions with hard water, where the emissions from domestic laundry could be reduced by 6–12%.
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| 5. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989
(författare)
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The anatomy of sustainable domestic laundering behaviour
- 2021
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Today’s washing appliances are much more efficient than those of a decade ago, yet the environmental benefits of this efficiency are counteracted by changes in consumer behaviour. This thesis presents two alternative ways to limit emissions from domestic laundering, as well as to better understand consumer behaviour related to the practice of keeping clothes clean. More specifically, it examines the potential for shared systems (which are common in Sweden) and finds that this setup could reduce climate impacts by at least 26%. Concerning behaviour, the results presented acknowledge that any final laundering practice is influenced by an intricate interaction between technology, social conventions, and individual concerns. Three overarching principles can be identified using current research literature concerning domestic laundry: 1. Technology changes laundry conventions, while social context dictates market acceptance of new cleaning technology. 2. Technological solutions are often suggested to influence laundry behaviour, but individual concerns seem to override the effect of the interventions. 3. Consumer laundry practices are guided by social conventions that are also rooted in intrapersonal dynamics. Hopefully these principles (as well as the detailed results from the LCA model) could be used to better understand the possibilities and limitations of domestic laundering, and guide any future interventions aiming for a more sustainable society.
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| 6. |
- Klint, Erik, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Återinför tvättstugan - för klimatets skull
- 2022
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Ingår i: Dagens samhälle. - 1652-6511. ; 2 mars
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Nya lägenheter byggs nästan uteslutande med privata tvättmaskiner i badrummet – trots att de ger betydligt större klimatpåverkande utsläpp per tvätt än tvättstugor. Allmännyttan borde göra gemensamma tvättutrymmen till standard.
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