Don’t bother with pre-wash (you’re just wasting 6billion litres of water a year)

An interesting article I came over  By DAVID DERBYSHIRE

Last updated at 23:37 24 February 2008

Britons waste six billion litres of hot water every year putting clothes through the pre-wash cycle of their washing machines, experts have said.

Although most modern powders remove stains without pre-washing, one in four households uses the setting for every load of laundry.

Campaigners say families are simply wasting water…and money.

Pre-washing is designed to give clothes a longer soak to shift stubborn stains. However, advances in washing machine design and improved detergents mean it is often not needed, according to the makers of Ariel and the environmental group Waterwise.

They say if everyone stopped using the setting, which wastes 15 litres of water with every use, it would save enough to fill 6,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Jacob Tompkins, director of Waterwise, said: “The past two years have seen the worst droughts and floods for a century in parts of the UK.

“Although these events give different messages to the public about available water supply, and the need to be water efficient, both lead to restrictions on public water supply.

“Already, the South of England has less available water per person than Sudan and Syria.”

The campaign comes as a survey found that most householders significantly underestimate how much water they use for washing, cooking and cleaning.

Three in ten people think the average house uses less than 50 litres of water a week. However, the figure is 150 litres per person each week.

In a survey of 1,002 people carried out by Ipsos Mori, half of those questioned said they do not wait until they have full loads before washing. Adding two garments would save around 608million litres of water each week.

One in six of those surveyed admitted to flushing junk such as cotton wool balls or make-up tissues down the lavatory at least once a week. With each flush using an average of 7.5 litres of water, that wastes 27million litres a week.

A quarter said they left the tap running while brushing their teeth, wasting six litres of water each minute, or 446million litres a day.

The memory of recent droughts seems to have been washed away by last year’s flooding, with water scarcity seen as the least important environmental issue.

Only 7 per cent said water shortage was the most important issue ahead of climate change, excessive energy use and carbon footprints.

A spokesman for Ariel said that modern detergents dissolve dirt without the need for longer machine cycles.

He said the amount of water wasted by British households in a week was enough to supply more than six million families.

Phil Woolas, climate change minister, said: “We all know that climate change is happening but many of us don’t connect it with the need to waste less water.

“Making a few simple changes to some of our everyday habits can cut down the amount of water we use.”