Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe TORONTO, April 18 (UPI) -- The Canadian province of Ontario lifted almost all bans on clotheslines Friday in a bid to reduce the use of electric dryers, officials said. For several decades, developers of subdivisions routinely inserted covenants into sales contracts banning clotheslines as being unsightly, but the Liberal provincial government decided to nullify most of them for environmental reasons, the Toronto Star reported. Advertisement Dryers account for 5-6 percent of Ontario's residential electricity demand, and an average machine consumes about 900 kilowatt-hours of energy each year that generates up to 1,600 pounds of greenhouse gases, the report said. In line with the lifting of the ban, the Toronto Hydro utility launched a campaign to give away 75,000 retractable clotheslines for the next three weekends at four major retailers, including Wal-Mart and Home Depot, the newspaper said.
