The Environmental Impact Of Ironing Shirts

For an airline pilot, it is essential to ensure that you are always presentable regardless of the situation you are facing at work. But there comes a time when he must wash and iron his shirts to be ready again for future flights. What if this ironing was questioned? It is good to think about your actions during your free time, but what if there was a way to make a change at work as well. When it comes to the environment and our choices, you can always do better and seek information. There are many ways to reduce your own carbon footprint, and you can benefit from these actions in the meantime.

A Much Significant Environmental Impact Than We Think

The 1920s and 1930s saw the emergence of a revolt in air transport, with constant progress. We travel further and faster, but some aspects have not changed, such as the pilot in a white shirt. They have many advantages for the pilot, such as absorbing sweat in hot weather, being resistant to coffee stains when it spills on itself. There comes a time when airline pilots’ shirts must be washed and ironed so that they are ready for the next flight.

This whole process generates carbon emissions, called CO2 or greenhouse gases. We will then focus on the carbon footprint of this ironing. Our daily activities often have a negative impact on the environment, and climate change is the main consequence. It is precisely the carbon footprint that will measure this impact. It will quantify all greenhouse gases produced individually and is expressed in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. This carbon footprint is achieved with the sum of two parts, the primary footprint, and the secondary footprint.

Let us look here at the secondary footprint: it is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions that come from the entire life cycle of the folder in question. Various studies have shown that over the whole life cycle of the product, from manufacturing to disposal, Co2 emissions average more than 10 kilos. Washing, drying, and ironing cause considerable CO2 emissions, and this is probably the most variable part of this phenomenon.

The pilot will be able to calculate his daily consumption kilowatt-hours (kWh) by multiplying the power of his iron by the number of hours used per day, divided by 1000. When comparing ironing to what an average car emits each year, the equivalent of 5.5 metric tonnes of CO2, clothing ironing appears to be relatively trivial.

Of course, as soon as the situation allows, the pilot can wear the shirt two days in a row, which would reduce the consumption of water, detergents, electricity. Consequently, the release of carbon into the atmosphere would be less critical. This is one of the most significant ways to do something good for the environment. While you are working, you should not forget that there are many things to do yourself. Sometimes you can’t decide but, in this case, you should act right away!