A Pin for the Environment

Image from tugboatlars.se

I remember reading on Vardag i kängurulandet (hey! where are you?!) that it's illegal to hang laundry on a clothesline in an Australian backyard/garden. When I met Kicki in Stockholm in March after she had moved back to Sweden we talked about how strange it was to have such a ban, both in general - from a Swedish perspective hanging out your laundry is such a normal thing to do - and in these times of climate change. I don't know if things are changing in Australia - I would assume so with them being quite a proactive force in the international climate change negotiations, finally - but they are definitely changing in another country with such a ban, the US.

Several US states forbid residents to dry clothes outside for the reason that many people view clotheslines as a menace similar to rusty old cars or other junk in driveways, and in essence, something that marks a community as poor, which in turn lowers property values. But times are a-changing and several states (e.g. Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Florida and Utah) have replaced the ban with legislation protecting people's right to hang laundry outdoors, for environmental reasons. Apparently dryers alone use at least 6% of all household electricity consumption so it sounds like a move other states - and countries - should be making.