Autor: Katharina Ellmer

Millions of tons of laundry are washed with a high use of resources in private households in Germany. Sustainable laundry care includes not only the reduction of the used resources drinking water, electrical energy and detergent but also a gentle care of the laundry loads that extends the durability of the clothing and household items. Clothing and household items are produced and marketed globally and internationally. Fiber blends, e.g., are used for an improvement of performance characteristics. To date, no data or publications exist that allow conclusions to be drawn about the quantity of laundry that is currently used in private households. Consumers sort the laundry in laundry loads and select washing programs, washing temperatures and the type and amount of detergent to be used and therefore take a key role within the technical system laundry care. Every single laundry item is equipped with information (e.g. fiber composition, care labels) that is necessary for sustainable laundry care. Standardized laundry loads consisting of towels and bed linen made of cotton are used in standardization. Laundry item specific laundry loads from consumer households have not yet been researched and defined. The aim of this thesis is the development of knowledge concerning laundry loads from consumer households. Laundry clusters will be defined by cluster analysis of laundry loads. Textile, clothing and washing characteristics will be described for each laundry load. Based on the findings, a model for laundry sorting will be developed. Therefore, an online-based consumer survey and experimental tests that allow a connection of consumer perspective and laboratory perspective will be developed, implemented and evaluated. The consumer survey resulted in data of 3279 virtual laundry loads from 971 consumer households. The data are combined with cluster analysis into eight laundry clusters. On the basis of data from the consumer survey concerning the use frequency of washing programs and washing temperatures the laundry clusters are described washing-specifically. For the implementation of the experimental tests the eight laundry clusters and two more clusters (one unsorted-cluster, and one IEC-cluster) will be composed as test-laundry loads. Based on the composition of the test laundry loads, textile and laundry specifics will be described for the laundry clusters using the following criteria: fiber composition, type of fabric and mass of the contained laundry items. As a result of the experimental tests, data regarding stain removal and mechanical stress of the laundry clusters is generated. Finally the laundry clusters will be compared, a model for laundry sorting will be developed and recommendations will be derived.