7 Ways to Green Your Laundry

3. Look for Symbols

Have you ever seen symbols and dots on clothing labels and not know what they meant? The American Cleaning Institute has got you covered.

Clothing manufactured after 1997 uses symbols to indicate how it should be washed, dried ironed and dry-cleaned.

It’s up to you to learn and correctly use the symbols, so you don’t potentially ruin a piece of clothing by following incorrect care instructions. Since this is an industry standard developed by the American Society for Testing and Materials, you should only have to learn one set of symbols for all clothes sold in the U.S.