It appears to me to be part of the view that says we should not employ single-use material in order to reduce the volume of trees cut down and rubbish going to landfill. I do have some sympathy for this and try to avoid single use items where I think it sensible.
When it is taken to extremes that ignore practicality or when it is assumed to be best practice because it sounds good, without ever comparing the overall cost to the environment of the alternatives, then I part company.
As for why any particular individual poster here recommends this practice you would have to ask them their reasons.
The proposition that ‘Germs are everywhere, it’s impossible to be rid of them, why would you want to anyway’ seems to have a few followers.
How do you argue with those who don’t believe that some practices (like for example the use of disinfectants) are necessary? It’s really their choice, they are at liberty to act as they wish.
My topic is asking those who are concerned about hygiene:
‘What methods do you use?’
Nice and simple, no need to bring forward proof that germs exist or that they cause diseases, or anything else. No need to overthink it
Living south of Hobart means it’s a 70 -30 chance of rain or mist
Despite this I have removed my clothes dryer during recent renovations and won’t be replacing it. My mum bought me a Mrs Pegs foldaway clothesline years ago and with a sunny front room (with the added benefit of a roaring fire in winter) I have my washing (including towels) dry overnight.
When weather permits, nothing like fresh air and sunshine to get hygienic towels
I seem to recall that germ-free is difficult or impossible to achieve in an environment other than a hospital or lab, but that cleanliness removes the stuff that the germs live on, so they do not reproduce and die, or at least are at levels unlikely to cause illness. That at least is the way dish washing works (as in hand dish washing)… detergent and washing removes the dirt but does little to kill germs. But the dishes sitting there clean and dry provide a hostile environment to food poisoning type germs.
Presumably the same is true for clothes washing?
Is there any evidence that washing machines harbour harmful levels of germs or bacteria?
A washing machine is washed every time it is used to wash clothes.
I think you likely can kill most, if not all, germs in the wash, my washing machine has a hygiene was of 95°, so likely it would do so. However I would also say it is pretty infeasible to regularly or always do that, as everything would be destroyed pretty fast.
Plus as soon as I touch the laundry to remove the load from the washing machine I am re-depositing bacteria back onto the washing.
As you say @Nat, a water temperature of 95C would disrupt most bacteria but be very hard on the wash. My WM indicates the max temperatures for the appropriate wash: i.e.Cotton 95C…Silk 30C. It is a Whirlpool FL tested by Choice as Best Buy about 20 years ago (and still going strong) so I don’t know if more recent ones have similar settings.
I don’t use a water temperature above 40C because my wash is usually ‘synthetic’ but do sanitise kitchen and bath towels by separately soaking them in Vanish (which is sodium percarbonate = sodium carbonate+hydrogen peroxide).
As the topic heading indicates we are looking at Kitchen and Bath towels in particular because it’s easy to use a kitchen towel after having touched perishable food and thus be exposed to E.Coli and Staph, and because bath towels can spread coliform bacteria. In particular both those items mostly stay wet between washes, allowing bacteria to grows in humid environments.
My understanding was not this at all; ie not just mechanically removing virus and bacteria, but that soaping (or micelles in general) pull apart the surface of viruses and therefore do mostly kill (or inactivate) virus and bacteria. Mostly you can read studies that show not only anti-bacterial hand washes kill 99.99% of bacterial, but all soaps do so too (no actual anti-bacterial additives required), the main need for optimal performance being correct washing process.
Also I would not use Vanish as it is a Reckitt Ben product
