Roses are red, violets are blue and hotel sheets are… white. An almost indisputable fact. But have you ever wondered why they are almost always white? And whether this might have a negative environmental impact?  IMAGE: ©SANDnature (A hotel on the Baltic Sea featuring beds made of natural fibers)

The ‘halo effect’ and other reasons why hotel sheets are white

Hotel sheets weren’t always all white. It is generally believed that this trend was started by Westin Hotels & Resorts. According to a 2014 HuffPost article, the company experimented with different colours in the 1990s and discovered that white created a “halo effect”, making guests believe that the rooms had been freshly renovated. After all, we associate white with cleanliness.

Design-Aspect

When designing a hotel room, it is much easier to combine white with other colours and elements than it is to do so with checkered bedding, for example. White is a light colour, not a spectral colour, and is therefore considered ‘neutral’; it reflects light and makes rooms appear brighter.

Cleaning & Hygiene

But white sheets have also become the norm in hotels for practical reasons. For one thing, they make it easy for housekeeping staff to quickly determine whether they need to be changed. White sheet sets also retain their original colour for longer than darker ones, and they can be easily washed with the towels, which are almost always white. This is confirmed, for example, by the Hamburg-based company elis, which operates a rental service for hotel linens.

„The reason we prefer to use white laundry is because of the fabric composition. Colored laundry is dyed, whereas white laundry is easier and quicker to clean.“ – Mathias Kunz, elis GmbH

The problem with optical brighteners

Optical brighteners are often used to maintain and enhance brilliant whiteness. These are chemical substances that convert invisible ultraviolet (UV) light into visible blue light. Consequently, the eye perceives brilliant white instead of a yellowish tint.

However, the consumer magazine Öko-Test has repeatedly criticised this practice, as optical brighteners are difficult to biodegrade and enter the water cycle via laundry.

Optical brighteners are completely unnecessary from a hygiene standpoint, as they do not make laundry “cleaner,” but merely make it appear whiter. And this comes at the expense of the environment.

Optical brighteners can be found either in the fabric (i.e., the bedding itself) or in the detergent.

 

How to avoid optical brighteners

When buying white bedding, it’s best to look for certifications such as the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), which strictly prohibit the use of optical brighteners and harsh bleaches. Some manufacturers also explicitly state that their bedding is made “without optical brighteners.”

Regarding laundry detergents: Almost all conventional all-purpose laundry detergents contain optical brighteners. You can identify them in the list of ingredients (labeled as optical brighteners, whitening agents, brighteners, or fluorescent brighteners). Eco-friendly laundry detergents, on the other hand, do not contain them.