Laundryheap Blog – Laundry & Dry Cleaning

Same-day collection. Free delivery in 24 hours.

Tag Archives: climate change


by 1 Comment

Singapore- The city of the future 

Photo by Elina Sazonova from Pexels

Singapore is a global leader in technology, sustainability, and environmentalism. As COP26 brings together just under 200 of the worlds leaders to discuss the future of our planet, these are just some of the ways that Singapore has become the city of the future.

  • Aquaponics farm
  • Technology farming
  • Innovative structures 
  • Supertrees
  • Cloud Forest

Aquaponics farm 

Singapore imports 90% of its food. Food contributes up to one third of the global greenhouse gas emissions damaging our planet. The Fairmount Singapore and The Stamford hotels are attempting to help combat the colossal amount of food Singapore imports by using an aquaponic farm. The farm, found on the hotels’ roof, uses aquaculture and hydroponics to grow fish and plants. Despite only being 450 sq. m, the rooftop farm will produce 1,200kg of vegetables and 350kg of fish every month once fully operational. Currently, the farm can only grow vegetables and fish, however the hope is that it can branch out into fruits. Although small, the farm is helping Singapore’s achieve its goal of producing 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030. 

Technology farming 

Alongside the aquaponics farm, technology farming is thriving in Singapore. Singapore has very low food security, and with climate change brining unpredictable weather, there is no guarantee that food will reach the country. Technology farms across Singapore use advanced machinery and equipment to help grow food and bring more food security to the area. High-tech egg farms, contained fish farms, and vertical vegetable farms, are all examples of how Singapore is using technological advances to help improve their food security. 

Image by icon0 com

Innovative structures 

Singapore is home to some of the most iconic structures in the world, one of which is the CapitaGreen building. Located in the Central Business District, the building was designed to be a sustainable environment. Included in the structure is a customised façade that reduces the buildings temperature and a rooftop garden with 40 different types of plant. Additionally, the rooftop holds a 45m windcatcher that captures cool air and channels it to the floors below. Across the city from the CapitaGreen building is the Treehouse, a condo complex that is the world’s largest vertical garden. Each of the complex’s 4 towers is covered in greenery, reducing carbon dioxide and significantly lowering the building’s carbon footprint. 

Image by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas

Supertrees 

One of Singapore’s largest, and most iconic, environmental developments has been the nature park, Gardens by the Bay. Set in the heart of downtown Singapore, the park is made up of 3 waterfront gardens and a Supertree Grove. The Supertrees are home to more than 200 species of plants, and 11 of them have environmentally sustainable functions, such as harnessing solar energy. These alien-like structures are awe-inspiring to see, and are helping lower Singapore’s carbon footprint and increase their use of renewable energy. 

Photo by Nextvoyage from Pexels

Cloud Forest

Aside from the Supertree Grove, Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay is home to the Cloud Forest, a conservatoire. With a temperature between 23 and 25 degrees Celsius, the Cloud Forest is home to an array of exotic plants and a 35m tall indoor waterfall. It uses cutting-edge technology to minimise solar heat, de-humidify air, generate energy, and harness heat waste. It is a beautiful spectacle which is both breath-taking and environmentally conscious.

Photo by Palu Malerba from Pexels

At Laundryheap we are dedicated to lowering our carbon footprint to do our bit to help save the planet. To book your Laundryheap order head to the Laundryheap website or download the free Laundryheap app.


by Leave a comment

How do you teach children to be environmentally conscious?

Climate change is rapidly altering our world, and we all need to be doing our best to be environmentally conscious. This includes teaching children about climate change and how we can save the planet.

  • Make recycling fun 
  • Show them how amazing the great outdoors is
  • Involve them in food changes
  • Teach them with fun experiments
  • Make energy-saving fun
  • Show them different ways to travel 
  • Limit the amount of single-use plastic in your house
  • Encourage a love of animals 

Make recycling fun 

Recycling helps reduce the pollution caused by waste and reduces the demand for creating new products. Up to 75% of all waste can be recycled, and it’s as easy as separating your rubbish into recyclable and non-recyclable bins. To encourage children to recycle, make the task fun. For example, you could let them decorate the recycling bin using recyclable materials, such as paper. This will help teach them the different recyclable materials, whilst allowing them to be creative. Making recycling less of a chore and more exciting will help children begin to understand what recycling is, how it is done, and why it is important. 

Photo by ready made from Pexels

Show them how amazing the great outdoors is

Nature is amazing and something that must be shared with children. Whether you take them on daily walks around the park, explore a nature reserve, or take a trek around a farm, encourage your children to be outside and exploring nature. If you notice that your local streets and parks are polluted with litter, you could take your children litter picking, explaining along the way the damage of litter to the environment. The more environmentally enthused children are, the more likely they will be to protect it. 

Photo by Lisa from Pexels

Involve them in food changes

From farming animals to throwing away leftovers, food consumption has a considerable impact on the environment. There are several ways that we can reduce the environmental impact of our food consumption including eating less meat, choosing seasonal food options, and growing our own fruit and vegetables. Allow children to explore different food changes with you, and be part of the process from the very beginning. If you are growing your own plants, let your children help plant and maintain the seeds. Create a colour-coded calendar with your children to assess when a certain food is in season. Let them help cook meals on a daily basis. Most importantly, encourage them to have an interest in their food and where it comes from. 

Photo by Maggie My Photo Album from Pexels

Teach them with fun experiments 

The climate crisis can be difficult to understand, even as an adult. To get children to begin to understand the changing world, and the importance of preventing these changes, you can teach them using fun and interactive experiments. For example, to show them how pollution works fill two cups halfway with water and add dilutant juice, or food colouring, to one cup. You can now show them that adding clean water can not change the coloured water back and that by mixing the coloured water with the clean water you only change the colour of the clear water. This will help better explain how pollution spreads and can open a conversation about the effects of pollution and how it can be limited.

Photo by Gabby K from Pexels

 Make energy-saving fun

We all need to be doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint and save energy. This can be difficult when there are children about, which is why you can encourage them to save energy by making it fun. Encourage your children to switch off lights by making it a part of their nightly routine. Make a competition to see who can save the most energy with an award for the winner. Have an energy-saving evening doing activities that use as little energy as possible. Try and be as inventive and creative as possible to encourage the children to save energy and be environmentally conscious. 

Photo by Myicahel Tamburini from Pexels

Show them different ways to travel

Car pollution is one of the major causes of global warming, which is why we should be teaching children about alternative ways to travel. Encouraging children to walk is not only great for the environment but is a good way to get them exercising. For longer journeys, consider taking public transport rather than a car, and explain on your journey the environmental benefits of taking public transport. You may also want to explain the advances in electric cars and how they help prevent car pollution. 

Photo by Gotta Be Worth It from Pexels

Limit the amount of single-use plastic in your house

Single-use plastics include plastic bags, drinks containers, disposable cutlery, and wet wipes, amongst other household items. If you limit children’s exposure to single-use plastics they will be less likely to use them throughout their life. There are many ways to avoid using single-use plastics, such as using bags for life, stocking up on reusable drink bottles, and using bamboo alternatives. Whilst transitioning away from single-use plastics, explain to children the harmful effects plastic has on the environment and why we should be limiting the amount we use. 

Photo by Mikhail Nilov from Pexels

Encourage a love of animals 

Animals are an important part of the survival of our planet, which is why we should be encouraging children to care for them. Over 500 species have gone extinct since the 1700s, and we can’t afford to lose any more. It is important that we educate children on the role that animals play in the survival of our planet, and thoroughly explain why they are going extinct and how to stop this. Encouraging a love of animals can be as simple as getting a pet, visiting a farm, or simply watching animal documentaries. We need to protect all the animals inhabiting our planet and conserve their habitats in any way possible. 

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

At Laundryheap, we are committed to being environmentally conscious, which is why we offer eco-friendly delivery times and use E-bikes. To book your environmentally conscious Laundryheap service, simply head to the Laundryheap website or download the free Laundryheap app. 


by 1 Comment

What is fast fashion doing to the environment?

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon from Pexels

We are becoming increasingly more aware of the damage that we are doing to the environment. We know that the sea levels are rising and we know that we need to work on our carbon footprint. But, do we know the damage that our clothes are causing the environment?

  • What is fast fashion?
  • What happens to our clothes in landfill sites?
  • How do our clothes pollute water?
  • What effect are our clothes having on the carbon footprint?
  • What are our clothes doing to natural habitats?
  • How can we help our planet?

What is fast fashion?

Fast fashion is the process of designing, making, and selling clothing as quickly and cheaply as possible. When there was once a new fashion range to reflect the four seasons of the year, there are now 52 ranges to reflect every week of the year. Fast fashion is cheap to buy, but comes at the price of being made from cheap materials that only last a few wears, and, more importantly, the deterioration of our environment. 

What happens to our clothes in landfill sites? 

A western family, on average, throws away 30 kg of clothing every year. 15% of that clothing is recycled or donated and the other 85% is taken to a landfill. 72% of fast fashion clothing is made from synthetic fibres, which are non-biodegradable. It can take up to 200 years for these fibres to decompose. As our clothing decomposes methane, a greenhouse gas, is emitted into the atmosphere. The rapid pace that we are throwing away clothing, coupled with the slow rate that clothes decompose, has resulted in landfills being inundated with clothing, emitting a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon. 

How do our clothes pollute the water?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has calculated that the fashion industry uses 1.5 trillion litres of water every year. A 2017 report stated that the average water footprint for a kilo of cotton, equivalent to one pair of jeans and a t-shirt, was 10,000-20,000 litres. This water becomes wastewater, which contains toxic substances, such as lead, mercury and arsenic. It is extremely dangerous to aquatic life and has the potential to travel to the ocean, therefore polluting the water across the globe. 

Even washing our clothes is polluting the water. One washload of polyester can release 700,000 micro-plastic fibres into the environment, and an estimated 500,000 of those fibres end up in the ocean. Although small, micro-plastic fibres are a major contributor to the micro-plastic pollution in our seas and pose a threat to the livelihoods of aquatic animals. 

What effect do our clothes have on the carbon footprint?

The UN has stated that the fashion industry consumes more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined. In addition, The Pulse report has predicted that fashion emissions will grow by 63% by 2030. 

Fast fashion monopolises on designing, producing and selling clothing at a rapid pace. As a result of this, the industry produces 10% of the worlds carbon dioxide emissions a year amongst other greenhouse gases. Synthetic fibres, made from fossil fuels, are constantly being used in fast fashion because they are cheaper than natural fibres. This makes the production of fast fashion clothing a lot more energy-intensive. In addition, a lot of our clothing is made in countries such as China, Bangladesh and India. These countries are mostly powered by coal, the dirtiest energy in terms of carbon emissions. Buying our clothing at the rate that we currently are is heightening the use of fossil fuels and increasing global warming through intense greenhouse gas emission.

What are our clothes doing to natural habitats? 

The fast fashion industry is a massive contributor to deforestation. In fact, 70 million trees are cut down a year to make clothes. Every year, thousands of hectares of endangered forestry is cut down and replaced by plantations of trees that are grown to make wood-based fabrics such as rayon. This loss of forest is threatening ecosystems, as well as the lives of indigenous people.

As well as deforestation, the fashion industry plays a major role in the degradation of soil. Cashmere goats and sheep are specifically mass-produced for their wool, leading to over pasteurisation. In addition, cotton is sprayed with chemicals to help it to grow, which leads to soil pollution and loss of land.

Image by crustmania

How can we help our planet?

Despite the damage that has already been done to our planet, we can prevent further damage from happening. Begin by using conscious fashion brands. These are brands that use environmentally friendly processes to design, produce and manufacturer their clothing. These brands tend to be more expensive to buy from, however, use higher quality materials to create long lasting clothing. Other than this, try to buy second-hand and recycle any of your unwanted clothing.

To prevent endorsing in fast fashion, make sure that you are looking after your clothing. Book your dry cleaning slot by visiting the Laundryheap website or by downloading our free app.