I did it this year – with the help of a brother and nephew, I put up a simple, retractable clothesline. It is a single line strung up between two trees and it is easy to unhook the line and automatically real up. It was inexpensive with the line costing about $18 and my mom gave me some of her old wooden clothespins circa 1955, for free.
It is a bit of a weird feeling the first few times I hung clothes out to dry. I live in a residential neighborhood with a big yard and plenty of screening trees, however if a neighbor wants to look, they can see what I’m hanging out there.
Needless to say, I don’t hang everything out to dry, and there is NO dirty laundry hung out to see! It does mean anyone who cares, now knows the color of my bath towels and that I have little flowery things on my sheets. I’m OK with that because there are three really good reasons to use a clothesline.
#1 My laundry smells so GOOD! This originally took 2nd place to the environmental reasons I was putting out a line. Now it is by far the number one reason, although my #2 reason is still very important.
#2 I’m reducing my energy consumption. An average dryer load takes about 3.3 kWh, which translates to about 38 cents/load. Let’s just say your household dries 10 loads a week – that’s 33 kWh and costs $3.80. Over a year’s time, that is 1716 kWh. I’m not really sure what all that kWh stuff means, but it does convert into $197.60 in energy costs in one year. Hmmm, that could be a nice afternoon at the spa for me!
#3 I have less dryer wear & tear. I didn’t even think about this one until yesterday, but if I’m using my drying a lot less, it should last longer, saving money and reducing my manufacturing carbon footprint. That’s a nice perk too!
For more on everything it take to make a new dryer, go to: http://www.industryplayer.com/licenceinfo.php?licid=012542
Yes, I have let myself hang out to dry, and I think it is worth a few extra minutes in my day to reduce my dependency on energy and get a little extra fresh air, by using a clothesline.
Here is a link to a variety of clothes air-drying techniques – what can you do? http://www.tiptheplanet.com/index.php?title=Air_dry_washing
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Thursday, May 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
You Mean Plastic is Made from Oil??!!
I was sitting in the chair of my new hairstylist talking about why I chose to try this saloon. It is convenient to my house and I can bike or walk to it. That started a conversation about the price of gasoline and moved on to the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
This triggered my normal response on how we need to become less dependent on oil products. For example, I opt for paper boxes over plastic bottles for my laundry detergent. It is a simple change to a renewable material.
To my astonishment, my hair stylist stopped putting goop in my hair and said, “you mean plastic bottles are made from oil”??!! I looked at her reflection in the mirror thinking that she was joking. Nope. She was dead serious. She had no idea that many of the plastic bottles she used where made from oil.
Wow.
If you are surprised by this too, check out this site for more info: What Plastic Is Made Of: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_plastic_made_of
It is so easy to make little adjustments in our day-to-day lives to reduce our consumption of oil products. Next time you are in the store, look for one way you can reduce the amount of plastic packaging. A couple of ideas:
• Choose paper or glass instead of plastic. For example, try paper or glass containers for your milk and juice. Paper is renewable and compostable and recycled glass has a strong demand.
On a side note, a lot of plastic is recyclable, however today the supply of recycled plastic is much higher than the demand, which means the plastic is sitting in warehouses waiting for buyers, which brings us to the next point.
• Look for post-consumer recycled materials on packaging for your cleaning supplies (this means the manufacturer used some of that stockpiled recycled plastic to make their new bottles.) This is called closed-loop recycling and is better than using new plastic.
• And… the one you have all heard before – use cloth bags instead of paper or plastic. If you forget the cloth bags at home, make sure to ask the cashier for paper bags, since that is a compostable, recyclable, and renewable material, and isn’t made up of oil.
My hairstylist got the goop rinsed out of my hair (my hair looks good) and she has committed to trying a few simple things to use less plastic (oil) in her household. How about you?
This triggered my normal response on how we need to become less dependent on oil products. For example, I opt for paper boxes over plastic bottles for my laundry detergent. It is a simple change to a renewable material.
To my astonishment, my hair stylist stopped putting goop in my hair and said, “you mean plastic bottles are made from oil”??!! I looked at her reflection in the mirror thinking that she was joking. Nope. She was dead serious. She had no idea that many of the plastic bottles she used where made from oil.
Wow.
If you are surprised by this too, check out this site for more info: What Plastic Is Made Of: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_plastic_made_of
It is so easy to make little adjustments in our day-to-day lives to reduce our consumption of oil products. Next time you are in the store, look for one way you can reduce the amount of plastic packaging. A couple of ideas:
• Choose paper or glass instead of plastic. For example, try paper or glass containers for your milk and juice. Paper is renewable and compostable and recycled glass has a strong demand.
On a side note, a lot of plastic is recyclable, however today the supply of recycled plastic is much higher than the demand, which means the plastic is sitting in warehouses waiting for buyers, which brings us to the next point.
• Look for post-consumer recycled materials on packaging for your cleaning supplies (this means the manufacturer used some of that stockpiled recycled plastic to make their new bottles.) This is called closed-loop recycling and is better than using new plastic.
• And… the one you have all heard before – use cloth bags instead of paper or plastic. If you forget the cloth bags at home, make sure to ask the cashier for paper bags, since that is a compostable, recyclable, and renewable material, and isn’t made up of oil.
My hairstylist got the goop rinsed out of my hair (my hair looks good) and she has committed to trying a few simple things to use less plastic (oil) in her household. How about you?
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