Making Less of an Impact on Mother Earth: Recycling Dryer Lint

As human beings, we have a responsibility to live according to our original instructions given to us by the Creator.  We were given ways to live in balance with the entire Natural World, which include many things such as ceremonies and ways to conduct our daily lives.

As we walk upon Mother Earth, we need to always keep in mind our duties and live our lives the best we can, while trying to make the world a better place for the next generations to come.  Each one of us can work towards making less of a negative impact on the environment, while passing on our cultural reasons for doing so to our children.  Recycling and reusing is an important part of living in balance with the earth.  This week’s “Tracking the Environment,” is about reusing and recycling dryer lint, in an artistic and practical way.

If you have a clothes dryer in your house, don’t throw the lint away.  There are many uses for lint from practical to fun stuff.  The first important thing you need to know is that dryer lint is very flammable.  It can be used in crafts, but should not be used to stuff toys, pillows, or any craft things like quilts.  It is very fluffy, but it is not something you want to be surrounding you or your loved ones with.  For one thing, you do not want your child hugging a lint stuffed teddy bear that contains one of the world’s best fire starters.  Another do not is, do not put the lint outside for the birds to use in their nests.  The lint is very porous and soaks up rain and moisture, but dries into a hard mass that does not give any insulation to the nesting mother or the baby birds.

To start, collect old tins and containers with lids to store your lint.  You may also want to save old toilet paper cardboard rolls and paper towel cardboard rolls.  These make excellent places to store the lint.  If you want to try to do lint art, which will be mentioned later in this article, you can use the tubes to collect and store the different colors of lint.  Since, as I mentioned before, lint is so flammable it is best to also keep the tubes of lint in tin, glass, or even plastic containers.

The toilet paper rolls packed with lint are great to use to start fires in woodstoves, fireplaces, or outdoor campfires.  You can also pack lint into empty film or pill containers to take with you when you go camping.  You will be amazed at how much lint can be tucked into those small containers, they are small and easy to carry, and you will be pleased at how easily they start your fire.  The small empty containers are easy to take home to be reused (recycled). Forget using lighter fluid, as you can also use small amounts of the saved dryer lint to start your outdoor barbecue.

If you are planning a project, you can make really attractive wax and lint fire starters using cup cake papers, old candles and bits and pieces of old crayons.  This is a project for adults.  Children can help but need to be supervised.  You will need cup cake papers meant for baking, lint, candle scraps, wax crayon bits and pieces, leftover paraffin wax, and a muffin pan.

 You can use an old coffee can in a pot of boiling water to melt your wax and crayons, or maybe you have an old double boiler you can use.  When all is melted add the lint.  Use care, as melted wax is very flammable.  You do not want it to splash out of the pan/container.

Place your papers into the muffin pan and fill each of the papers packing it down with a spoon until each cup is filled to the top.  You can get fancy and have a can of brightly colored melted crayons or candles to drizzle over the top of each wax and lint filled cup to make them look nice.  Let the fire starters cool and solidify completely before removing them from the tin.  These need to be sold as outdoor campfire starters only. They are not to be used in woodstoves or fireplaces.  Be sure to add that information in each package.  For those of you who like to plant your own flowers in pots, some lint lining the bottom of the pot does the same job that gravel does.  For one thing, it keeps the soil from running out of the pot every time you water.

Dryer lint projects are fun for children, yet artistic and creative adults can also enjoy these crafts.  Some need adult supervision. The following craft project is dryer lint clay, but since it involves cooking in a pan; an adult must make the first part of the recipe.  If you have helpers, let the children tear three cups of lint into small pieces. Then you place the pieces in a saucepan and cover with two cups of water.  Slowly stir in one cup of flour and add a few drops of vegetable oil.  Stir constantly over low heat.  Stir until the mixture is smooth and binds together.  After it cools a bit, pour it onto newspaper sheets or waxed paper to cool.  You may want to put the newspaper or waxed paper on trays.  You can use this like clay to sculpt models, to cover molds, to cover forms, or to pack into small molds.  You can make forms just like you would with clay.  It will take three to seven days for your creation to dry depending on its size.  When dry paint and decorate.

One of my favorite things to do is to draw or paint, so making lint art really interested me.   For this project you will need a photo, image, design, or even your own drawing - you will need a matted picture frame with glass, an 8” X 10” is a good size - your saved toilet tubes of different colored lint - tweezers - toothpicks and the cardboard backing from your frame.   You can also add threads, feathers, beads, animal fur etc. to your image.  If need be, get your friends to donate some colored lint!  Wash and dry separately brightly colored towels, spreads, etc. to get your needed colors.

Use the cardboard from your frame as your base (your drawing board).  Lay down your background piece of lint - then start to form (draw) your picture by laying your colored lint on top of your background piece.  No adhesive is necessary, as the lint will adhere to the lint below.  You can fold the lint into appropriate shapes - you can braid it, fold it, roll it into string-like yarn, and even roll it into balls to create your picture.

Details like eyes or flower centers, eyelashes, nails, stems, or just lines of division are done last.  Use the toothpicks and tweezers to help you position the finer parts without disturbing the rest of your image.  Once you feel your picture is complete, lay the glass from the frame on top of your lint picture and flip both glasses and cardboard over and into the frame.  You also may want to sign your name with string or lay a small piece of signed paper with your name or initials on it in the corner before you put the glass on top.

Close up the back and you have just created your masterpiece of lint art. You do not have to be able to draw, as a Picasso-like form will look great, too.  You can make a cartoon dog and call it Dusty the dog, or make a Fred Lintstone, how about the Missing Lint, just let your imagination soar.

As the weather gets warmer, hanging clothes outside and letting the winds and sun dry our clothing, which is environmentally better, will end collecting dryer lint. So, if you want to try this project you will have to do so soon.