Lint Compactor?

One of the things I love about living in a house vs. an apartment is having the washer and dryer available (Yes I know some apartments have such appliances in them, I’ve never lived in such, and still my following comments apply).

In many apartments the washer and dryers are only better than a laundromat in that you don’t have to load the whole shebang into the car and transfer it to a separate location.

Living in a house, the washer and dryer are only steps away. It’s no extra trouble to do a load a day if that’s the way you want to go.

No, there’s no denying that having your own place with these specific appliances makes human life much more leisurely.

However there is one area that having a washer and dryer in the house really causes me trouble.

And I guess it’s more specifically the dryer.

Some say use it for mulch.

The problem is lint. The never ending battle against the by-productial invader.

Lint is not just my problem. A lot of people have issues with the seemingly innocuous particles of multi-colored fuzz.

Some spend hours getting rid of it. Some just let it pile up.

L-lint-phant

Others have turned it into art.

Lint Supper

But no matter how we look at it, trash or art lint is, like death and taxes, inevitable.

So the other day, as I emptied my lint tray for the ol’ umpteenth time I had an idea.

See recently I’d been working with insulation, and as I pulled it from the tray it came to me that lint, utilizing the right application technique might make quite adequate building insulation.

There  by taking a  at this point waste by product that we all can’t help but produce pounds of  year, and turn it into something useful.

I mean conceivably we could all be using aluminum cans and other human cast off refuse to build houses…but let’s start here.

The way I envision it, each dryer vent hose is now run to a “lint compactor”. Upon reaching capacity the compactor wraps the lint in a flame retardant bag and spits out a compressed block of insulating fibers. The consumer just has to remember to keep the machine stocked with bags.

Now the technical aspects I’ll leave to someone else…I’m just an idea man…but designing and building a prototype shouldn’t be that difficult for someone with the right kind of technical abilities.

I mean maybe I’m wrong ’cause like I said I’m just an idea man, but the lint compactor would certainly be an environmental plus around the house.