Orion Grassroots Network | Project Laundry List

Project Laundry List uses words, images, and advocacy to educate people about how simple lifestyle modifications, including air-drying one’s clothes, reduce our dependence on environmentally and culturally costly energy sources. Through programs like the Million Solar Dryers Pledge and by promoting the Right to Dry (currently being considered by legislators in Connecticut, Hawaii, North Carolina, and Vermont), Project Laundry List, according to the Wall Street Journal, has "spearheaded an international movement," and the New York Times has written, "[Project Laundry List's] Web site, laundrylist.org, is an encyclopedia on the energy advantages of hanging laundry."

April 19 is National Hanging Out Day, and rather than just sit around you should grab a friend or two and some clothespins, and fight for your right to dry. Founded in 1998, National Hanging Out Day advocates the use of clotheslines (or the "solar dryer") as an alternative to the expensive and inefficient electric dryer.

In the past, college campuses and various activists have simply hung their clothing in a visible location or worn a t-shirt with a slogan on it. You could organize something similar in your own community. Just get involved and be creative!

Believe it or not, use of the solar dryer has actually been severely restricted or even outright banned in some areas. ‘Right to Dry’ legislation just went up for review in New Hampshire and failed to pass. Connecticut’s version of the bill will be voted on soon and in Ontario a rule-making process is underway to solicit public comment about how to change the laws.

The state of California is especially notorious for its ban on the clothesline; nearly all 35,000 homeowners’ associations have rules against the solar dryer. Don’t let this stop you from getting involved. Try to find ways to work with your community association to get the rules changed. In Geneva, Switzerland, a resident hung a clothesline that said ‘this is not a clothesline’ after the police told her they would be fined if she continued to air dry her clothing (seen at right).

Whatever you decide to do, it’s important for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the electric dryer is the appliance which consumes the most energy, aside from the refrigerator. The federal government says dryers account for 6% of residential electricity use, but that does not account for the 17 million American households that have gas dryers, or for Laundromats, multi-family housing facilities, universities, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, prisons ("home" to 2 million or so people), fish piers, or the dozens of other commercial laundry establishments.

Clotheslines are a gateway drug for better environmental behaviors. "Small behaviors are important not only for the direct environmental impact they have, but because they often lead to more and more pro-environmental behaviors over time... Numerous psychological studies have shown that people are more likely to agree to take a big action if they've previously agreed to smaller, similar actions... People reject scary messages like the danger of global warming if they don't think there is anything feasible they can do to fix it." (from "The Power of Voluntary Actions," Gristmill.org).

Since modern dryers tend to use roughly the same amount of energy (even the so-called "energy-efficient" models), the only real way to cut the energy used is to limit use. An astounding number of residential fires are also a result of the electric dryer, and start mostly due to lint build-up in the machine. Plus, clothing that gets dried on racks or on clotheslines lasts much longer than if an electric dryer is used.

Help cool down the debate on climate change by getting your community to do its part and hang out this April 19 on National Hanging Out Day.

by Shane Clements

Shane Clements is president of an environmental group at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord, NH and has collaborated with Project Laundry List on several occasions.