I don’t iron any clothing and haven’t for about 10 years now. Why do people iron their clothes? It certainly isn’t to make them last longer, or to save time, or to make sure that people know that they washed them. Is it to make the clothing appear as though it is brand new out of the packaging? It could also be to make sure people are aware that the person wearing the ironed clothing is wealthy enough to afford to iron their clothes; and certainly wealthy enough to not have to work hard enough physically to crease said clothing. At least, that’s why the Victorians still ironed their clothes.
People sometimes point out my creased shirt and ask questions, such as “Did you forget where your iron is?” or give advice like “If you roll your shirt up it won’t crease up as much in your bag after you’ve ironed it!”. I usually placate them with throwaway lines like “Well, I cycle to work and change when I’m here, so I don’t bother.”, but this is not the whole truth. I vehemently disagree with ironing on an ethical and ecological level. I am not just lazy…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironing
After reading about the history of ironing, I am still bewildered why this custom and tradition is kept up. It is clearly a class issue, those of the upper classes used to be the only ones with ironed clothes, now the lower classes can buy an iron for less than two hours wages. However what is the ecological impact ironing has on the planet, and don’t we all hate doing it? I am clearly not the only one out there with such questions:
An excerpt from the 2nd article in the Independent sums up what I had already felt on a more philosophical level, I always assumed that ironing used more energy in joules than even the mechanical energy required to spin them in the washing machine:
“A couple clicks of the mouse, then a figure appears at the bottom of the screen. Our household EDUs is 1,282. A breakdown shows that our actual clothing EDUs is quite low at 558. But then there’s the laundry, which at 724 EDUs is slightly alarming. It includes 324 from washing and a whopping 400 from ironing.
The ironing is what did us in, more environmentally damaging than our washing. “It’s like having the kettle switched on for seven hours straight,” says Phil. But more shocking, if we add seven tumble-dryer loads a week. The figure more than doubles…”
Obviously the excerpt and the full article, (well worth a proper read) allude to the fact that tumble drying is also pretty ecologically harmful. I don’t tumble dry myself, but I may on occasion have been tempted to as it is a functional device. We don’t like to wear wet clothes, we may be forced to wear something soon after washing it, and it won’t dry naturally quickly enough. I plan around the fact I don’t have an iron or a tumble dryer by washing my clothes before I need to wear them by a few days (usually…). the article then goes on to give bulletpoint advice on improving the ecological impact of your wardrobe:
“iron only where necessary…”
When is ironing necessary? I can’t imagine.
I am clearly not the only person writing about this issue:
http://community.babycentre.co.uk/post/a20837015/anti-ironing_campaign
http://h2g2.com/entry/A361522/conversation/view/F44694/T105842/page/1/
http://davewalker.cc/stop-ironing/ (Source of the wonderful cartoon above)
http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/housekeeping/a1840119-How-to-give-up-ironing-without-crunchy-towels-etc
If there is one thing to take away from reading this webpage, STOP IRONING!