Fighting for the Right To Hang
The Right To Hang laundry is prohibited for aesthetic reasons according to a Reuters article, U.S. Residents Fight for the Right to Hang Laundry.
Who would be so terribly silly? Principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, and enforce them with fines.
Only in the United States would drying clothes outside, in the air and sunlight, be considered as an "unnatural" detriment to property value. Apparently, our undergarments are too ghastly to display in public. According to an ABC report, U.S. households spend at least $100 per year drying our clothes simply to keep our skivvies out of the limelight.
A simple, energy efficient solution, and one that requires a little space and about $10 worth of technology, is to hang clothes outside to dry saving for than $25/month on one's electric bill.
From a purely environmental point of view, dryers use 10-15% of domestic energy in the United States. Too, heat is created and then dumped outside without any system in place to recapture and reuse that heat. We recapture dirty water. Why not dirty hot air?
From a health and wellness point of view, dryer sheets not only contaminate and pollute our environment, but are toxic for humans as well. According to the health and wellness website Sixwise.com, some of the most harmful ingredients in dryer sheets and liquid fabric softener alike include benzyl acetate (linked to pancreatic cancer), benzyl alcohol (an upper respiratory tract irritant), ethanol (linked to central nervous system disorders), limonene (a known carcinogen) and chloroform (a neurotoxin and carcinogen), among others.
Seacoastonline.com reported on The Danger of Dryer Sheets. According to the manufacturers' Material Safety Data Sheets the chemicals above may cause one or more of these effects: central nervous system disorders, headaches, and loss of muscle coordination; liver or kidney damage, allergic reactions, skin disorders, cancer, nausea, dizziness, or vomiting. One ingredient in dryer sheets, camphor, is readily absorbed through body tissues, Environmental Protection Agency listing warns, "Avoid inhalation of vapors." It potentially causes CNS disorders (multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's diseases and others). No one knows how or if its effects are enhanced when combined with the other listed chemicals.
Advocating for the Right To Hang, Project Laundry List is making air-drying and cold-water washing laundry acceptable and desirable as simple and effective ways to save energy. According to them, there are more reasons to hang laundry to dry whenever possible: clothes last longer, sunlight bleaches and disinfects, indoor racks can humidify in dry winter weather, and clothes dryer fires account for about 17,700 structure fires, 15 deaths, and 360 injuries annually.
For those who don't want to give up the benefits of your dryer but are afraid to risk exposure to potentially toxic chemicals from your dryer sheets, spend time on National Geographic's Green Guide for available alternatives.
Every little thing we do for our bodies, our families, and our environment helps.
The fact that we have to fight for the Right to Hang when we have full rights to own and carry loaded weapons to the grocery store to buy our dryer sheets is completely silly, indeed.
