Cleaning up with resource-efficient white goods

Global concerns about preserving our water resources have motivated industry to invest in developing more resource efficient goods. The heightened awareness of the water challenge has also penetrated consumer oriented market segment such as household appliances and white goods which typically integrate modern technology that curbs energy and water consumption. No longer can traditional white goods, such as dishwashers or washing machines, be considered luxury commodities as their current contribution to reducing water wastes is too significant to be ignored. 

In fact, new washing machines use about half the water and energy of the average 10-year-old machine and with the gradual decline of top loaders, the average efficiency of a washing machine has nearly doubled. In the past 5 years alone, there has been a 10 percent increase in water efficiency of white goods.

To further strengthen the resource efficiency of today’s white goods, many machine manufacturers have now incorporated fuzzy logic to add a degree of artificial intelligence to their machines. Typically, the washing machine will add enough water to help match the size and absorbency of the load and some will check for suds to see if an extra rinse cycle is required.

Plastics add support to helping industry develop resource-efficient appliances

In maximizing the energy and water savings benefits of white goods, the appliances industry has progressively replaced traditional steel tubs with polypropylene (PP) based materials for the production of washing machine tubs.

Polypropylene allows manufacturers to optimize the design of washing machines as the dead spots between the tub and the rotating drum is brought to the minimum. The intrinsic properties of steel as an alternative material for tub designs usually generate stamping constraints which ultimately result in higher volumes of waste water between the tub and the drum. By using polypropylene as the overall base material in washing machine tubs, equipment manufacturers can produce machines that reduce water consumption by 10% or up to 1.5 litres per load.

The use of polypropylene in white goods also implies water savings on a production level, adding to the overall environmental value of polypropylene based materials.  For each tonne of plastics produced, only 2 m³ of water is needed from processing to finish.

Why polypropylene works well in white goods?

From a technical perspective, polypropylene delivers on demanding industry requirements. The material offers excellent stiffness/impact behaviour and is detergent resistant up to 95°C. It equally provides resistance against stress cracking in combined detergent and mechanical (dynamic) load during product life time and has demonstrated low or even non-yellowing of the material in test environments.