Green Tip of the Week: Keep Tons More on Earth

November 1, 2009

Question:  What else can I do, just by myself, to bring worldwide carbon emissions down to that 350 parts per million number?

Answer:  Spend 10 additional minutes after washing your clothes.

Background and Explanation:

Remember last week, we discovered each kilowatt of electric energy puts 1.5 pounds of CO2e (carbond dioxide equivalents) into the atmosphere?

Well, each time we run a clothes dryer, we send 5.3 pounds of CO2e upwards. Those emissions are the environmental cost of electric energy for dryers.

If 400 of us hang-dry a load clothes, one time, we spare the atmosphere a ton of CO2e (to be exact, that’s more than a metric ton, which is .91 of a ton).

Why did we think up clothes dryers in the first place?  People outsmarted themselves, looking for convenience.  Remember (or not) the old slogan “live better electrically”?  This 5-minute video, “Drying for Freedom,” gives some good info about what we’ve learned since the old days.

Clothes dryers use the second most electric energy of any appliance.

What to Do?

Last week, the New York Times published a great blog debate, called “Rethinking Laundry in the 21st century.”
Check it out for fascinating bits.  Like our right to hang clothes outside–states are now prohibiting anti-clothesline rules (snobs think clotheslines are tacky).  Like how not using dryers will save 10 to 20% of a household’s electricity.  Like how other countries aren’t addicted to clothes dryers like we are (only 4% of Italian households own a dryer).  Like how good your clothes smell when you dry them outside.

Colleges are starting to catch on.  Chelsea Hodge ’09 of Pomona College got her alma mater to put drying racks in all residence hall laundry rooms, as she writes in “Rethinking Laundry.”  She also persuaded the college to loan racks to students each semester. (Note: they cost as little as $12.99 on Amazon.com.)

Give yourself the treat of watching the Allegheny College students performing and talking about their Action Day 350 clothes-hanging on this “Underwear Project” video.

They rigged up an outdoor clothesline, in the snow, and hung out 350 pieces of their underwear for Action Day, October 24th.  Since they assumed spectators would walk up and inspect the underwear, they taped informational notes about carbon emissions to the bras and thongs and shorts and socks.  An educational day.

As for me, I’m planning to buy an inside laundry rack for the winter.  They say rack-drying puts good moisture in the air.  Then next summer, maybe Mr. Reluctant Environmentalist and I will find a clothesline contraption for the porch.

Anyone have ideas for student residence halls at Fairfield?