This Affordable Cape Town Laundromat Uses Only Purified Borehole Water! [Review]
With the Western Cape officially declared a disaster zone in the midst of the worst drought in decades, water is an extremely valuable and scarce resource. While we’re all doing our best to find unique ways to conserve water, from harvesting rainwater to taking two-minute showers and collecting grey water, one area that’s particularly difficult to cut back on is laundry. Not washing our clothes is pretty much out of the question but it takes a huge strain on our daily water allowance when regular washing machines can use up to 50 litres of municipal drinking water per cycle! So we desperately need another solution. That’s where Green Planet Laundry comes in! I put this water-wise laundry service to the test to see if it lives up to the hype.
Saving water, one load at a time
What sets the Cape Town-based Green Planet Laundry apart from other commercial laundries is that it doesn’t tap into any of the city’s municipal water supply. Instead, they make use of undrinkable, 100 percent purified borehole water to wash your clothes. Absolutely no drinkable tap water is used in the laundry process at Green Planet Laundry. I was privileged enough to get a tour of the facility they use near the Cape Town Airport and was blown away by their operation. The modest warehouse in the Airport industrial area houses the most eco-friendly industrial washing machines and dryers on the market and a water purification room known as “the spaceship”.
Housed in a small shipping container and flanked by three water tanks, “the spaceship” is where the magic happens. Here Green Planet Laundry’s engineers transform undrinkable borehole water into purified water that is not only safe to do your washing with but also safe enough to drink! While the water hasn’t been officially certified drinkable I can tell you that after seeing “the spaceship” in action, this water is probably even purer than the tap water you use at home to do your washing. The water filtered in “the spaceship” gets infused with 95 percent pure oxygen and after the washing process, 50 percent of the grey water used in their laundry gets recycled in subsequent laundry cycles which further reduces the need for more borehole water.
It’s good for your clothes too!
But wait, there’s more. Green Planet Laundry isn’t just helping to save water, they’re also helping your clothes. The oxygenated water they use requires less detergent and eliminates microbes in linen, leaving your clothing clean, sanitised and soft. It also acts a biocide that kills bacteria, with disinfectant properties up to 150 percent more powerful than chlorine. This increases the life of your linens by up to 50 percent making them whiter and softer. More reason to make use of this brilliant innovation!
I put this to the test by sending some pretty badly soiled laundry to Green Planet Laundry to see if they would be able to rescue it. Full disclosure, we were moving house recently and in the chaos of it all, we forgot all about a bag of wet towels and linens that had been stewing behind some boxes in the spare room. Once I discovered the bag it was too late; mould had started to set in and everything smelt musty and gross. I was about to chuck the lot when I remembered that I had a voucher to try out Green Planet Laundry. I contacted them to collect the load of washing from our home and the next morning someone was there to pick it up.
Listen, I wasn’t very hopeful about saving the items but I thought I might as well give it one last try before “throwing in the towel” completely. Less than twenty-four hours after collection Green Planet Laundry contacted us to arrange delivery of the clean load and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I opened the bags. Every single item had been rescued – the mould was gone, the towels and linen in the bag were softer than soft and smelled heavenly. The whole experience was super easy and I’m officially a massive fan of Green Planet Laundry.
Save a pretty penny
But what about the price? The great news is that Green Planet Laundry offers super competitive pricing, and in many cases, they’re cheaper than your local laundromat. For example, for washing and folding, the average laundromat in Cape Town charges between R25 and R40 per kilogram of laundry, and between R34 and R45 to have the washed laundry ironed as well. Green Planet Laundry comes in under the average with a rather impressive price list starting at R28 per kg for Wash & Fold (5kg minimum), R40 per kg for Wash, Iron & Fold (5kg minimum), and R89 per item for Blankets and Duvet Inners. These prices include pick-up and drop-off as well. You can see Green Planet Laundry’s full price list here.
Green Planet Laundry offers a same-day, door-to-door collection and delivery service in all greater Cape Town areas from Strand to Paarl to Duynefontein to Cape Point.
For information say Hi to Green Planet Laundry on Facebook or visit their website.
