The problem
So you think you need your clothes returned to you warm and dry only minutes after having them washed? We have one word for you: DIVA.
Using a tumble dryer is so unnecessary for drying your clothes. It’s a waste of electricity and releases a load of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

As a society, we have lost the virtue of patience and now the environment is paying the price. What could you possibly be doing that requires such a quick laundry turn-around? Yes, maybe you’ve reached a breaking point with your underpants but there are bigger things at stake. Think of the planet. Your underpants are affecting the planet.

In the US, a year of tumble drying has the same energy usage level as the entire annual consumption of the state of Massachussets. That’s the same population as Bulgaria. It’s hard to fathom how much energy could so easily be saved and yet… isn’t.

The solution
Maybe this would be unreasonable if there weren’t such an easy solution, but there is: drying racks. While the ideal might be to hang your laundry outside on the line, we don’t all have the luxury of a sunny climate (take it from two Brits). But an indoor drying rack can be quickly assembled in your bedroom and the drying itself will take two days max.

Evaluation
Here, Morgana proudly poses with her full rack. What a marvel. The drying rack is great too. This challenge required a bit of pre-planning, since Morgana was completely out of socks and had to hold back one or two pairs to wait out the drying process, but the benefits outweigh these tiny drawbacks.

It seems a bit hypocritical to talk about the sins of tumble dryers and completely ignore the environmental damage of washing machines, so now we want to take this challenge to the next level: hand-washing. Stay tuned.

This article is part of our 30 days  Zero Waste challenge.
Read what Jas and Morgana were up to in the past few days.

Day 1 / 2 / 3 / 4