Sustainable Chicago Winter 2011 : Page 19
SUSTAINABLE CHICAGOWinter 2011 I guiltily admit that I do not enjoy this. Washing my clothes and then having to either hang them outside on the line, or inside on a clothes rack (as you know, it rains a lot in London) make the pro-cess of laundry a little more time consuming. After all, 79% of American households have a tumble dryer, compared to 45% in the UK. After the initial battle, I real-ized I was washing things that didn't need to be washed so soon. Knowing the time it takes to wash, dry and put away made me re-evaluate how I wash my clothes. I consume less energy not only from having no dryer but from washing less clothes in general. Back in the US, one non-profit trying to bring back clothesline cool: The Laundry List. Groceries Each time I go back to visit the US, I see more grocery stores promoting use of reus-able bags, but ample access to plastic bags at every checkout. When I shop in London, I have to ask for a plastic bag at the register. Sometimes I even get a bit of a look from the check-out person when I ask for sev-eral bags. In October of this year, the country of Wales actually in-stilled a 5p tax on each plastic bag used. After stats came out this fall that plastic bag use went up this year in the UK, a plastic bag ban was even un-der discussion. It's now sec-ond nature for me to grab my cloth shopping bag. Deep down, I know some carry the reusable bag be-cause it's trendy but deep down, do we care why they do it? The need for people to "be seen" may be self-glorifying, but why not? Bike Share Barclays Bank sponsored a bike sharing program to test run in July of 2010. After huge popularity, the program www.Sustainable-Chicago.com 19 Valerie Miller
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