Another Way to Cut Emissions: Hang Dry

by Katherine Gustafson

categories: energyefficiency, Greenhouse Gas

Published November 05, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT

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We talk a lot about changing our lightbulbs and going easy on the meat in our personal quests to help our struggling planet. But we've been overlooking one big source of domestic energy expenditure: the laundry.

New Scientist reports that a team from Michigan State University has calculated that if Americans would only hang dry their clothes instead of using the dryer, as well as make 16 other simple changes such as washing clothes in cooler water and installing low-flow showerheads, they would reduce their collective carbon dioxide emissions by 7.4 percent by 2019.

I imagine many people don't have room for a backyard drying rack and don't like the idea of washing soiled garments in cool water. There are, however, all manner of drying racks -- ceiling-suspended, wall-mounted, pulley-operated, collapsible, retractable -- that can make drying clothes fit in even the smallest apartments. Washing less-dirty clothes in cool water and saving the hot for the heavy-stain-lifting is one way to conserve on the washing end, as long as you already have enough laundry for two loads and aren't using double the water.

Giving your clothes to others instead of throwing them away after you're tired of wearing them is a good way to reduce consumption and ease pressure on landfills, which a report by a group of waste-reduction organizations claims are a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.

Levi Strauss & Co. and Goodwill recently announced that they will team up to encourage people to donate their used clothing. The “A Care Tag for Our Planet” initiative will make Levi’s the first major retailer to put messages on its clothing care tags advising people to donate unwanted clothing to Goodwill, according to a Levi Strauss & Co. press release.

“A Care Tag for Our Planet is Goodwill’s first partnership of its kind designed to increase the life cycle of clothing and textiles to address the approximately 23.8 billion pounds that end up in U.S. landfills each year,” said Jim Gibbons, International CEO and President of Goodwill Industries.

If clothes make the man, then washing, drying and disposing of his clothes in conscious ways make the man on a mission to help the Earth.

Photo courtesy of stock.xchng