Earth Day 2019: Bryce Dallas Howard Reveals Her Eco-Friendly Laundry Routine

Moviegoers will recognize Bryce Dallas Howard for saving the planet in the “Jurassic World” films, but she’s trying to do her part to help the environment off-screen too. The actress changed up her laundry routine to be more eco-friendly ahead of Earth Day.

Howard spoke to International Business Times earlier this month at an event for Tide purclean in New York City, and she revealed that her changes started when her son, now 12, was born. She tried to eliminate all kinds of irritants in her quest to figure out what was bothering him.

“We needed to start using a detergent that was a plant-based detergent,” she said. “It was a real bummer because right away I could see that my clothes weren’t as clean. So I would do an extra wash or I would crank the heat up, kind of like compensate for that. That’s frustrating.”

However, living in California during a massive drought made her realize that she was using much more water than she thought. There was a quota of how many gallons of water her household could use per day, and that’s when those extra washes became an even bigger issue.

“The first month, we went over our quota. I was so mortified and so I started looking at, OK, where’s all of our water going?”

Of course, laundry was a big factor. In addition to being more strategic about her loads, she also realized that using cold water not only protects fabric, but it also reduces a household’s laundry carbon footprint.

“As I did more research I learned something that was absolutely game-changing, which is that if you wash your laundry in cold water, versus hot water, you’ll be decreasing your [laundry] carbon footprint by 80%,” Howard said. “It’s a huge difference, absolutely massive. If you wash your clothes in cold water for one year, you will save enough energy to power your smartphone for the rest of your life.”

Yet, Howard still needed to use plant-based detergent, and it still was not getting the job done with one wash in cold water. That was when she switched brands.

“When Tide purclean came out and when I found out about it, I was incredibly excited because not only is it a plant-based product that is sustainable at every stage of production, but at the end, you can wash it in cold water and you get spectacular results,” Howard emphasized. The detergent is certified biobased by the USDA BioPrefered Program.

The actress, who stars in next month’s “Rocketman,” was hired to promote Tide purclean, but she said that she doesn’t team up with just any brand. It’s important to her that products she endorses are actually useful.

“I need to be so enthusiastic about something,” she told IBT about her brand partnerships. “If there’s something that I’m genuinely enthusiastic about, that genuinely has made a difference for me, that I really am like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is this weird, crazy little thing where all you have to do is choose one product versus another, and there’s a massive difference when it comes to the two as to what that final outcome will be’...of course, I’m gonna be really excited.”