'Right to Dry' movement aims to cut carbon emissions

Approximately 80 per cent of American households own and operate a tumble clothes dryer with millions more doing their laundry at a local laundromat. With the average household drying eight loads of laundry per week and some doing up to 15 loads, that uses a lot of energy. Earlier this year, reports NewScientist, National Clothespin of Montpelier, Vermont, shut down its manufacturing equipment, and now as a result there are no makers of clothes pins left in the U.S. No wonder, considering the percentage of households that use a clothes dryer instead of a clothesline. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, clothes dryers use over 3 per cent of household electricity and the 'right to dry' movement is trying to change that figure. Project Laundry List claims that if households would green up their laundry practices by using cold water, air drying, refraining from using bleach and stopping ironing they would save 10 per cent on energy costs. On a personal note, for the last six months our household has stopped using the dryer and has unplugged televisions, computers, stereos and anything that is not needed at night, and have realized savings of over 30 per cent on our electric bill. Regulations in many communities across the U.S. have made it impossible for residents to dry their clothes the natural way. Restrictions in these communities include the ability to put up a clothesline, as most Americans look at the contraption with disdain and associate it with poverty, says NewScientist, and homeowners fear that having one erected next door will bring the value of their property down. According to the National Fire Prevention Association, the clothes dryer brings about more fires than any other appliances, causing as many as 15,000 fires annually. The right to dry movement is attempting to overturn the clothes line bans and change the perception of the line to eco-chic. Ruth Rettie, who leads Project Charm, a group based at Kingston University in London said to NewScientist, "Everyday household practices, for example tumble drying or using air conditioning, are resistant to change because they are embedded in conceptions of comfort and convenience. But with the right combination of policy tools and social marketing, interventions can result in major behaviour changes." Project Charm investigates ways in which people's behaviour might be influenced. Sixty-six percent of Americans now view the electric clothes dryer as a necessity, according to the Pew Research Center, down from 83 per cent in 2006.