I Want to Grab Climate Change by the Balls, and you Should Too.
If there is one thing humanity needs right now, its the balls to do something about Climate Change.
Awareness on is on the rise, and people are getting scared — or at least they should be. There are arguments as to whether or not climate change is man made or if its just a part of a natural cycle earth experiences every 10,000 years — I’m on one side, my Pop is on the other. Regardless, we all have the ability to aid in lowering our carbon output. Although our environmental problems may seem insurmountable to the common, everyday person, the times are calling for action.
In 2015 I started a company with my teenage daughter, hand manufacturing wool dryer balls and to date, we have made over 25,000. We sell them primarily at farmers markets and some online. Due to consistent customer feedback we discovered 10+ dryer balls in every load of laundry, not only softens and removes static but also lowers dry time, by half.
Doing a little math with my Pops, we figured, if every American household cuts dryer energy by half, we could save roughly 68 million tons of CO2 and greenhouse gases a year! This is just in the USA alone.
Although, this cut to carbon emissions barley skims what needs to be done globally, this is an action we can all take, immediately. Not only will we save energy but we will save time and money. Win-win-win.
The Balls to Save Energy
There are 130 million households in America — 100 million of those homes have heated electrical or gas dryers.
On average, a family of four, does 397 loads of laundry a year. A heated electrical dryer uses roughly 4 kilowatts per hour — on average most laundry loads take around an hour to dry — 397 loads = 397 hours = 1588 kilowatts or 1.4 tons C02 per year, per household. Multiply that by 100 million households — just by drying our clothes we are emitting 136 million tons of C02, yearly. This is just in the USA.
On the positive side if every American household cut their laundry dryer energy by half, we would save roughly 68 million tons CO2 and green house gases per year — which then, can be converted to dollars and time saved, for every household! We are saving money to cut carbon.
Wool as a Superpower
Dryer balls have been around for years — mainly, made in rural areas out of wool or alpaca from local neighboring farms, they have been a novelty — until now.
Wool represents mercy in spiritual literature, and it doesn’t run short on super powers. When wool is grown and sheared ethically, everyone wins.
Fleece is the source of lanolin, a natural softening agent and it’s hyper absorbent; holding up to a third of its weight in water. Wool is fire retardant and when used in a heated air element with wet clothes becomes a natural softener and eliminates static. 10+ balls at one time can hold up to 4 cups of water.
Furthermore, dryer balls are 100% toxic free and can be used over 1000 times; simply add essential oil to scent. As if these super powers aren’t enough, dryer balls are 100% biodegradable and won’t harm children or pets. One last win — everyone can make them.
The Balls to Change
Its hard to make changes in many areas of our domestic lives, especially when it comes to things we can do to lower our carbon footprint. Driving less, eliminating meat and dairy, traveling less, using less electricity — some of these things are unobtainable for many — but there is one thing we can all do. We can all lower our energy usage on our dryers.
The change is really simple — buy or make dryer balls and use them — or hang your clothes, which is ultimately the best way. That said, line drying is unrealistic for most people.
If every American uses 10+ dryer balls, that’s a lot a balls — one billion balls, to be exact. That’s a lot of wool, and a lot of business comes from that wool, on both sides of the sheep.
If there has ever been a reason to become a baller, the changing climate is it. The fate of our planet is in our hands — do you have the balls to do something?
