Article published September 06, 2009
Hung out to dry: Here’s one way to save energy
The kids are back in school. Summer’s over psychologically once we get past Labor Day, even though fall won’t actually begin until later this month.
We could have a number of summer-like days well into October. Or, knowing how fast things can change in Ohio, we could be reaching for winter jackets early.
What to write about? Our cool August? Nah. Short-term, regional weather anomalies are barely a snapshot in the long-term global climate picture.
The Waxman-Markey legislation? Too early. The Senate hasn’t taken it up yet. It’s unclear if it will before the most important climate talks in world history are held in Copenhagen this December.
As my mind toggles between summer and fall, trying to figure out where it wants to be during yet another awkward transition between the seasons, Blade subscriber Al Guimond of Whitehouse points me toward a timely and fascinating topic.
Wet laundry. Or, more appropriately, the excessive use of dryers.
Why don’t more people dry their clothes on a clothesline?
Al drew my attention to the Lucas Soil & Water Conservation District’s 2009 newsletter.
The article states that your dryer accounts for about 15 percent of your electric bill. It said the United States relies on dryers more than other countries. In Italy, fewer than 5 percent of households have a dryer.
On one hand, this comes as no surprise. Americans perfected drive-thru service for real important stuff, such as cheeseburgers and beer. They certainly aren’t eager to haul baskets of wet clothes out to their backyards.
Yet I can’t help but wonder why clotheslines faded from sight.
When I grew up in an affluent Michigan suburb during the 1960s and 1970s, my mom would occasionally pin up clothes with her wooden clothespins. We had a dryer. We could afford to use it. She just liked to dry clothes outdoors now and then.
Somewhere along the line, people got too uptight about clotheslines. Way too uptight. Many communities have banned them because they consider them unsightly, a deterrent to property values.
Now, according to Project Laundry List (laundrylist.org), Americans are rising up against the establishment, demanding their right to hang their wet laundry again. Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas and actor Daryl Hannah head the campaign’s so-called list of “laundry heroes” for supporting the cause.
This story is yet another example of how we, as a society, have abandoned common sense and have become oblivious to how wasteful we’ve become.
Sure, most of us don’t bag grass clippings like we did in the 1970s. We’ve learned to get by without Big Macs in styrofoam containers. But, for the life of me, I don’t understand the bottled water craze.
How many of us, really, turn off lights when we’re not using them? I’ll bet you that the people howling loudest right now about the Waxman-Markey bill aren’t seeing the prospect of higher utility bills for what they are — user fees — and are the people who leave the lights on most often.
I agree with George W. Bush that we can’t conserve our way out of the energy crisis. But do we throw our hands in the air and do nothing?
The last time I saw a lot of clothes hung out to dry was when I was in Ilullisat, Greenland. It was an especially popular practice among the working-class Inuit. The Inuit I met had a fair number of cell phones, DVD players, and computers, just in case you’re writing this off as some sort of ancient custom.
Granted, that was in July, 2008. The middle of summer. But c’mon, folks. We’re talkin’ Greenland.
Don’t try to save the world. Just do something, anything, to conserve energy and save a buck.
Something to think about as we transition from summer to fall.
Contact Tom Henry at:thenry@theblade.comor 419-724-6079.
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