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January 23, 2007

Earth-Saving Khakis

I kept thinking that someone should do an analysis of how much energy is wasted drying blue jeans in dryers and then I finally googled it, and sure enough, someone has, and it is a lot: "Machine washing, tumble drying, and ironing caused 47% of the eco damage the jeans caused - 240kWh of energy a year, equal to using 4,000 lightbulbs, each of 60 watts, for an hour."

Ignoring the question of who irons their blue jeans, that's a lot of light bulbs.

And how many people actually need to wear denim? Blue jeans are sort of like the pickup trucks or Hummers of clothing -- overkill for a lot of us, considering the job that needs doing.

I don't own any blue jeans. It's not because of the energy issue -- that only recently occurred to me. I just don't find them that comfortable or flattering. Plus, they are kind of cliche. I remember a friend in high school saying once, "why wear jeans when there are so many other more interesting things to wear?" He was a fashion god to me -- a picker at the Goodwill, he said it at the bins where we were surrounded by piles of other options -- so I took it to heart.

Every once in awhile I wish I had a good pair of pants. Cutting blackberries last summer is one example of a time when I wished I'd worn something other than a skirt -- I had the legs of a penitente by the time I was done. But most of the things I do, I can pretty safely do in my flannel nightie. You may think this says more about my lifestyle than anything else, but this includes things like fixing my sink and painting (which, if not for the cold and modestly, I could probably do naked).

You could always line dry -- I'm a big believer in that. But that's not always convenient, and I'm not so convinced that the Spin-X is the solution, in spite of the strong argument made for them here, in an article that looks suspiciously like a press release.

I don't begrudge people who need the protection of denim. Actually, I don't begrudge anyone who wears jeans at all. They look nice on some people, and I don't think anyone wearing them is some kind of baby seal killer.

I'm just saying: If I were Dockers, I'd consider funding a study on the contribution of blue jeans to global warming.

Posted by mary at January 23, 2007 11:06 PM

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