Many students in Flanders regularly go home during the weekend where they are offered a hot meal and someone to do their laundry for them. Call it our own little tradition. But is it really only because we are not learning independence (as some might judge of our way of living)? Or is there another story to it, possibly a sustainable one? And what other laundry habits—that already exist or are on the surface of arising—are truly ecological and still very much our own?
When students go home over the weekend they are not thinking of lying on the couch while their mother does all the work (preferably with some cookies and milk served?). No, they are thinking of how exactly they can contribute to a more ecological and sustainable world. Sounds familiar? Indeed, we all go home so that our washing machines are not wasting loads of water for just some (maybe somewhat dirty) shirts and a couple of pants. Instead, these enjoyable items join the laundry of our other family members. This way we reduce the amount of times washing machines around the world have to spin and, consequently, we reduce the amount of water spent. If you have never heard this typical story from any student, then you have not been paying attention.
We should all be thinking of how to make doing laundry more ecological. Even if you are not the type of student to go home over the weekend, or you are staying in the city because you want to engage in some extra studying hours, you can do your laundry in a way that remains true to the Flemish story. You just meet with some friends and do laundry together. You are not doing this because you want to grab a beer. No, you are thinking of our planet and the future we still want it to have. With less water spent you have just reduced your ecological footprint.
Maybe you want to do laundry together with some friends, be sustainable and enjoy a nice cup of coffee, a cocktail or lunch? This you can do at the Wasbar. It is a place—in Ghent, Kortrijk and Antwerp—where you can continue your sustainable lifestyle already key to your home trips and have a nice social life.
But remember: Doing laundry together is really only sustainable if you meet up with some friends and mix up your laundry to really think and do together (this is not some mere and silly excuse that helps you avoid doing the extra studying hours you had initially planned). Really, in the Wasbar there is even free Wi-Fi where you can all continue studying or even start your own study group. Maybe this is the new story, a tradition in the making, that will help us to keep alive the sustainable tradition we already have (and perhaps do even that something more: With travelling costs for going back home reduced, to name one advantage only).