Garment care
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Garment care
Care Instructions
Our products are manufactured with minimal environmental impact and designed to last. We focus on water usage because fresh water is the most valuable resource on our planet.
An estimated 15-30% of the environmental footprint of any garment comes from use, wearing and washing. Therefore, we also want to help you take better care of your Pure Waste clothes!
The quickest and easiest way to lower the environmental impact of the clothes we buy and wear is to ensure that our wardrobe maintenance skills are up to date. It's something each of us can do today. Taking good care of your clothes also saves you money as you don't need to buy new clothes so often. Below, we present some tips on how to take care of your clothes using less water, energy and toxic chemicals. If you have questions about how to take care of our products, drop us a line!
Eight easy steps for responsible wardrobe maintenance
1. Remove large stains and strong odours before machine washing.
If your clothes get stained, take care of them as soon as possible. If you are not at home, a valid first aid measure is to rinse the stain with mineral water. For most stains, that is better than plain water. Most stains come off with olive oil-based Marseille soap (vegan) or gall soap. Rub soap on the stain when you get home. When machine washing your clothes, you won't have to use a longer cycle or hotter water to get the stains out.
You don't have to wash sweaty clothes immediately: hang them up to dry. For sweat and other strong odours, we recommend soaking for a few hours in a bucket filled with white vinegar and lukewarm water (one part vinegar, four parts water). Bacteria cause smells, and they thrive in plastic-based fibres. Vinegar kills these bacteria, so it prevents and helps to fight odours. After soaking, rinse the clothes with lukewarm water and hang them to dry, preferably on finger-wide coat hangers. Washing them in a machine is not necessary after every time you use them.
2. Machine wash less
Generally, we machine wash our daily clothes too often. Unless you sweat a lot during the day or your clothes get dirty daily, there is no reason to machine wash your clothes after every use. You can also freshen them up by taking them out to air. Using an undergarment (such as a tank top) protects clothes from sweating. The only clothes we should wash often are underwear, undershirts and socks.
3. Switch to ecological detergents and fabric softeners
Using less detergent and fabric softener will make your laundry cleaner. The extra chemicals only increase pollution and cost you more. Use only the suggested dosage. Adding 1–2 heaped spoonsful of baking soda to each load will help the detergent work more effectively. If you use liquid detergents, ensure they are free of zeolites and artificial scents. We picked our favourite laundry detergents for you.
The most ecological and easy-to-use fabric softener is white vinegar. It closes the fibres after washing, helps keep colours better, and cleans the machine. You can use vinegar just like a regular fabric softener, but you don't have to worry about overdoing it, as it is fully biodegradable and affordable. It has a slight odour when the clothes are damp, but the scent fades away as they dry. If you want a scented fabric softener, add a few drops of scented natural oils to the vinegar, such as lavender, sage or lemon.
4. Lower the washing temperature
When machine washing Pure Waste clothes, we recommend washing at no more than 40°. This helps to conserve energy, as the water doesn't need to be overheated. When using an eco-programme, put the clothes in a washing bag to protect them from the mechanical abrasion of the longer cycle.
5. Use a microfibre washing bag to contain loose synthetic fibres.
Synthetic fibres release microfibres into waterways in every wash. Because these microscopic particles are too small to be filtered in water treatment plants, some end up in nature. They harm aquatic ecosystems, and in time they climb their way up the food chain and end up on our plates.
The best way is to machine wash synthetic fibres only when necessary. When the clothes need to be washed, please put them in a microfibre washing bag to catch any loose fibres. We recommend Guppy Friend washing bags.
6. Hang to dry. Steam to refresh.
Clothes are best kept on hangers rather than folded and can also be dried on hangers. Thicker hangers help to keep the clothes in shape. Hung clothes often need no ironing after they dry. Steaming is a safe and fast alternative to ironing and an excellent way to freshen up clothes after a few uses.
7. Don't cut off the care labels.
Cutting off the care labels and fibre information from clothes is not good, so try to keep them unless your skin is super-sensitive. Clothing collectors and recyclers need fibre consistency information on the clothes to sort the textiles correctly. If that information is available, the clothes will not end up in fibre recycling, and all the materials and natural resources used while making them will be well-spent.
8. Take care of your washing machine.
Your washing machine can only do its job if you care for it. A clean machine will also last longer and not break down so easily. Always open the door and detergent drawers to dry out thoroughly after each wash. Clean the drawers and lint filters at least once a month from detergent residue. Using white vinegar helps to prevent bacteria growth and reduces odours in the drum. We recommend using non-zeolite detergents, as zeolite will cake up over time inside the drum and possibly break the machine. If you primarily use low temperatures to wash your clothes, you should run a hotter cycle (60–95°) once in a while, for example, with bed linens and towels. This will remove the zeolite residue and eliminate bacteria. Clean your machine once or twice a year with citric acid (C₆H₈O₇). Place 100 g of citric acid powder in the machine's detergent drawer and run a hot 95-degree cycle in an empty machine. Before machine washing again, run a short hot cycle with some detergent.