With drought and waters restrictions in place in many parts of South Africa, water is becoming a precious resource. Experts predict that the Western Cape drought in particular, will continue to have a big impact on residents for years to come.
Many of us are now coming up with creative ways of conserving water in our homes and reusing as much greywater in our gardens as we can. In my blog post Frugal with Water in Your Home & Garden, I share with you some tips on how we save water in our home.
One of the biggest consumers of municipal water are our washing machines at home. Did you know that the average washing machine uses 50 litres of water per load? That’s a lot of precious water going towards a load of washing! While Capetonians are allowed only 87 litres of water per person per day, washing one’s clothing at home is almost impossible.
Cape Town residents can now experience the convenience of sending their laundry to be cleaned without the guilt of wasting natural resources. Green Planet Laundry’s innovative process, which uses purified borehole water instead of drinking water to clean your laundry, is a major step in the right direction.
But, whenever consumers hear the words “green,” “eco-conscious” or “eco-friendly,” they think expensive. The great news is that Green Planet Laundry offers competitive pricing, and in many cases, they’re cheaper than your local laundromat!
For washing and folding, the average laundromat in Cape Town charges between R25 and R40 per kilogram of laundry, and between R34 and R45 to have the washed laundry ironed as well. Green Planet Laundry comes in under with the average with this impressive price list:
| Wash & Fold (5kg minimum) | R28 per kg |
| Wash, Iron & Fold (5kg minimum) | R40 per kg |
| Blankets & Duvet Inners | From R89 per item |
| Curtains (including ironing) | R75 per kg |
| Shoes (fabric) | R60 per pair |
| Stain treatment | R15 per item |
See Green Planet Laundry’s full price list here.
Municipal (drinking) water is expensive, and the average laundromat uses thousands of litres of it every day but unlike other commercial laundries, the Cape Town based Green Planet Laundry does not tap into the city’s precious municipal water supply. Instead, they make use of purified borehole water. That means that absolutely no tap water is used! Additionally, 50% of the greywater used in their laundry machines is recycled therefore further reducing required ground water. You can read more about Green Planet Laundry’s revolutionary system here.
Green Planet Laundry will open its doors in Cape Town on 16 October 2017.
One lucky reader can win a voucher for 1 Wash & Fold at Green Planet Laundry.
This giveaway is open to SA residents only. The voucher is valid from 16 October – 30 November 2017. Winner will be announced on 16 October. Good luck!
Not a resident of Cape Town?
Share this blog post with family and friends in Cape Town, and they might just be the lucky winners!
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I try and reuse most of my washing machine water. Back breaking work but I collect after each rinse and throw it back into the washing machine. And I try to do 3 loads on that day. After that the water is used for flushing or the Watering the garden
I would love to give this a try – with two young kids laundry is the area where we struggle to save water. We do what we can only take showers when needed, only flushing when needed and I am no longer sure what colour my car was originally!
At the moment we keep our washing rinse water in our bath and use it to flush our toilet and water plants and washing the car if need be
We keep flushing the toilet to a minimum, use laundry water for flushing and watering the garden, eat from paper plates as often as feasible.
Our washing machine water gets reused until I can’t, and the leftovers go to the garden.
I prefer to keep a little extra greywater for flushing (if the shower and hand-washing bowl is not enough)
But this option would be good for someone in a flat with no garden.