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Levi Strauss Contest Aims to Build a Better Clothesline

<p>Levi Strauss &amp; Co. is looking for innovative ideas for air drying clothing in an effort to slash the amount of energy used around the country to dry clothing.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

Levi Strauss & Co. is looking for innovative ideas for air drying clothes in an effort to slash the amount of energy used around the country to dry clothing.

The company's Care to Air contest, running until July 31, seeks ideas that improve on or replace the clothesline, offering a total of $10,000 in prizes.

Levi's research into the life cycle impacts of its jeans has found that about 60 percent of their impact on the climate comes from consumer use, and 80 percent of that is from drying.

Hanging clothes to dry is an obvious way to reduce the energy and environment footprint of clothing since air drying doesn't consume any electricity.

But, 92 percent of households have dryers, and many city and apartment dwellers don't have yards, balconies or anywhere to hang clotheslines outside.

The Care to Air contest, being run through Myoo Create, hopes to change that by gathering new air drying ideas. Anyone can submit and vote on ideas through the contest website. Ideas will be accepted until July 31, then five finalists will be named. Two will be chosen by a judging panel and three will be based on votes from Myoo users. The winners will be announced Aug. 16.

All five finalists will receive $500. First place gets $4,500, second place receives $1,500, the crowd favorite (based on votes) receives $1,000, and the most valuable Myoo community member gets $500.

The contest expands on Levi's Care Tag For Our Planet campaign, which is an effort to help consumers lower the impacts of their clothing by informing them, on clothing care tags, to use cold water when washing, line dry, and donate old clothing to Goodwill.

Drying jeans - CC license by Flickr user Violentz
 

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