Metrics

There is a trade off between the environmental impacts of applying wrinkle free treatments and a reduced need for washing and ironing. Research is needed to get more detail on this trade-off but if applying a finish resulted in a 10% reduction in the number of washes per year this in turn results in a carbon footprint saving of about 2.6% over a garment's lifecycle. This is because the use phase represents a large proportion of total life cycle emissions and the fact that both drying and ironing are reduced by 10% when the number of washes is reduced [1].

^1. WRAP 2012, A Carbon Footprint for UK Clothing and Opportunities for Savings

Image credit: WRAP