Hang drying our clothes has a huge potential for reducing pollution and climate change from carbon emissions. It is a simple chore, where wet clothes are hung on a rack or a line, and the sun and air are allowed to let them dry.

It can save energy and reduce pollution on a large scale comparable to the entirety of the power sector. Line drying is powerful in its environmental benefits.

(Photo : Pixabay)
Hang drying our clothes has a huge potential for reducing pollution and climate change from carbon emissions. It is a simple chore, where wet clothes are hung on a rack or a line and the sun and air are allowed to let them dry.

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The Prevalence of Hang Drying in the World

Almost the whole world, including industrialized nations which can afford dryers and who have the needed energy to operate them, still hang dry clothes. Even in Siberia, the people freeze clothes, and the ice sublimates.

Despite China's rapid industrialization, dryers still aren't widely available. There are no data on national statistics on the use of dryers in Brazil because so few citizens own one. Most Japanese households, whose houses are relatively smaller than American homes, use lines instead of dryers, including those who have such a unit at home.

It is the dryer that is the exception. Hang drying has a good rationale: such a simple and mundane task saves enormous energy, and consequently, lots of expenses, in exchange for such a small effort.

More significantly, it has large-scale benefits in helping alleviate climate change.

Italy

Italians are well known to use lines in drying clothes. There, it is a culture; a mere 3% of all households in Italy's 60 million-member population use dryers. This is significant, considering that Italy is the top 8 biggest economy worldwide. Essentially all Italians, irrespective of income or age, utilize air drying for their linens and clothing.

North America

This is in stark contrast to the US and Canada, where dryers are predominant. The wealthiest countries in the world, aside from these two, thrive without this machine, which hundreds of millions of North Americans cannot live without. 

Cultural Phenomenon

The reason why hundreds of millions of people all over the globe use the air and the sun to dry their clothes is simple: culture. It is not even the environment which people think of as the reason that they do not use dryers. Hang drying is almost everybody's means of drying clothes. Advances in dryer technology have not changed this. Hang drying is woven into many cultures.

Sadly, in the US, the practice is the most uncommon. In stark contrast, in Europe, even in rich countries, the method is too prevalent. 

Even dryers in China do not sell well, due to the millennia-old Chinese tradition of using the health-giving power of sunlight to leave clothes cleaner and healthier for both the fabric and the wearer. 

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Poverty Reasons

It may be true that developing countries and peoples do not use dryers simply because they are too expensive to buy and use. Majority of the world's poor populations probably do not even know what a dryer is. 

Energy-saving

A lot of people also know that dryers consume too much energy. This both drains the pocket and causes negative environmental consequences. Besides, clothes coming out of the dryer do not smell as good as those dried under the sun.

Other Benefits

Using the air and the sun to dry clothes saves money, saves the environment, and even provides some form of exercise. 

Hang drying also saves lives. Scientists even estimated that 222 lives would be saved every year from the dangers of emissions of coal particulates emissions if dryers are not widely used.

Thirteen more lives will be saved from fires because dryers are probable causes of 15,000 fires each year in the US.

Dryers cause three times more deaths than terrorism every year in the US. Imagine dryers being more dangerous than political extremists. Hang drying will many lives every year from climate change, pollution, and even poverty.

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