Clothes Airer - Carbon Footprint Scandal Revealed

I invite you to take a walk down the aisle with me. A walk through the "international" aisle of your local supermarket today.  I checked the labels along the vegetable racks. I had some sympathy with avocados from Chile but could not forgive peas from Kenya or runner beans from Egypt.

Tomatoes and peppers from Holland were a familiar sight next to tomatoes from Morocco and Cardiff!  Nestling neatly were cucumbers from Spain next to lettuce from Kent. And the daddy of them all onions from East Anglia with onions from Mexico, yes I said Mexico! Mushrooms from Ireland puzzled me. We are overloaded with local mushroom farms.

Today we are urged to recycle and even penalised if we fail to do so properly. We are urged to reduce global carbon emissions. Are supermarkets exempt from this? 

The clothes airer is a revival product. It is one of the oldest sustainable appliances ever made. It seems like the clothes airer has been with us since time began. 

The average family tumble drying energy usage is 460KW/hours/per year. Every household could use an airer. Imagine the saving if airers were made available to all households - the difference that would make to their carbon footprint.

 Asparagus is grown year round in Somerset, Celery in Lancashire and Cauliflower in Lincolnshire. The Supermarkets ship these vegetables in super tankers or fly them from South America, Africa or the Middle East to be unloaded in the UK. Then they are trucked in super trucks all over the UK to replenish supermarket stocks.

Clearly labour rates in developing countries can be one tenth of UK rates and the market price is high enough to cover flight costs. But who covers the cost in global warming terms. 

The clothes airer is a world away from creating carbon emissions. The clothes airer reduces your carbon footprint each and every time you use it!

When you give thought to the melting ice floes and glaciers. When you consider that over time we will have land mass threatened by floods. Food production is calculated to reduce by 20% throwing some populations into real deprivation. This is your chance to do something about that every day. Install a clothes airer.