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A simple piece of rope hangs between some environmentally friendly Americans andtheir neighbors. On one side stand those who have begun to see clothes dryersas wasteful consumers of energy (up to 6% of total electricity) and powerfulemitters of carbon dioxide (up to a ton of CO₂ per household everyyear). As an alternative, they are turning to clotheslines as part of whatAlexander Lee, an environmentalist, calls "what-I-can-doenvironmentalism"
But onthe other side are people who oppose air-drying laundry outside on aestheticgrounds.Increasingly, they have persuaded community and homeowners associations(HOAs) across theU.S. to ban outdoor clotheslines, which they say not only lookunsightly but also lower surrounding property values. Those actions, in turn,have sparked a right-to-dry movement that is pressing for legislation toprotect the choice to use clotheslines. Only three states--Florida, Hawaii andUtah--have laws written broadly enough to protect clotheslines. Right-to-dryadvocates argue that thereshould be more.
MattReck is the kind of eco-conscious guy who feeds his trees with bathwater andrecycles condensation drops from his air conditioners to water plants. Hisfamily also uses a clothesline.But Otto Hagen, president of Reck's HOA in WakeForest, N.C., notified him that a neighbor had complained about his line. TheRecks ignored the warning and still dry their clothes on a rope in the yard."Many people claim to be environmentally friendly but don't take mattersinto their own hands," says Reck. HOAs Hagen has decided to hold offtaking action. "I'm not going to go crazy,"
he says."But if Matt keeps his line and more neighbors complain, I'll have toaddress it again."
NorthCarolina lawmakers tried and failed earlier this year to insert language intoan energy bill that would expressly prevent HOAs from regulating clotheslines.But the issue remains a touchy one with HOAs and real estate agents. "Mostaesthetic restrictions are rooted, to a degree, in the belief that homogeneousexteriors are supportive of property value," says Sara Stubbins, executivedirector of the Community Association Institute's North Carolina chapter. Inother words, associations worry that housing prices will fall if prospectivebuyers think their would-be neighbors are too poor to afford dryers.
AlexanderLee dismisses the notion that clotheslines devalue property assets, advocatingthat the idea "needs to change in light of global warming" . "Weall have to do at least something to decrease our carbon footprint,"Alexander Lee says.