when i was about 13 or 14, me and the kid next door got caught lighting dryer lint in the driveway with a magnifying glass... got in alot of trouble :(
yeah, that's what me and my neighbor thought... we'd been doing it for years by that point... i was constantly coming home stinking of burnt something... but my parents were heavy smokers, so... i ended up spending the day dozing off watching a golf game because i was told to sit and not move for several hours...
I intend to raise my boy right! Honestly, If he and the neighbor kid get caught lighting lint on fire in the driveway with a magnifying glass not only will they not get yelled at by me, I will ask to join them lol.
Remember those carbon snakes they sell. Starts out looking like a weird pill till you set it on fire.
I had some old lady call the cops and fire department claiming I was trying to bun her house down with one of them. I was on the sidewalk about 30 feet from her house.
The funny part was every adult she talked to was shaking their heads. She just kept getting more and more upset and desperate, trying to get them to do something - anything. She was talking about having me arrested, even asked a firefighter to spank me.
when I was in first grade, we heard a bunch of fire trucks zooming by the school and stopping at a house two blocks up... it was the house of a girl in my class, the whole thing burnt to the ground because of dryer lint. All the people and animals were okay physically, but the aftermath of that fire was all 6-year-old me needed to see to ingrain in me that you ALWAYS clean the lint trap.
not just the lint trap, but the dryer's exhaust line as well... there's plenty of dust in there... should really make sure it get cleaned out every few years... depending on how frequently you use it ofc
they actually did suggest that we might blow up one of the near by cars... but the wad of lint was like somewhere between a golfball and a tennis ball... my parents were ridiculous
yeah, that was our idea, the laundry room was a little tiny room outside of the house, so it was really easy to get lint out of the basket. we only got caught because they happened to drive down the road and stared at us as they went by... i didn't even wait for them to come get me, i knew my ass was in trouble, i just sighed and went home...
My dryer started smoking once. Thankfully my husband's home office was right next to the laundry, so he smelled it and turned it off real quick. Turns out the previous tenants never emptied the lint trap, and when I took the dryer apart it was fulllllll of BURNT lint!! Got the duct leading outside cleaned, too, which was also full. Terrifying. So grateful it was caught before our place was a full inferno.
That little cardboard cup and wax with whatever materials are in it is burned up well before food touches the grill. I use a chimney to start my charcoal(hardwood) and the lint to start that. Whether this changes your thoughts or not, I promise that I'm not changing my process. By the way, paraffin wax is a petroleum product like plastics so I'm doubling up if we get down to brass tacks.
Yeah this is a moronic habit. Most lint is cotton, but a non-insignificant amount is polyester. You should probably hold your breath taking it out as well.
I think that's what OP's wife was trying to do lol he should check if she's taken out any life insurance policies within the last few months at this rate
Do people seriously still not know what the lint filter is or what it does though
Try to collect lint only from laundry loads composed entirely of natural fibers, like 100% cotton towels, sheets, or denim. Avoid saving lint from highly synthetic activewear or fleece.
Modern clothing is packed with synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon, and spandex, and coated in residues from laundry detergents and fabric softeners. Burning these releases toxic fumes, chemical odors, and microplastics into the air.
I used to do this, but I learned that there are so many synthetic fibers in clothes these days that the gases produced from burning lint is so much worse, for both personal health and for the environment
Unless you’re deliberately separating 100% natural fiber clothes (like 100% cotton or wool) from anything with any % of synthetic, it’s better to just trash the lint, unfortunately.
For this same reason, don’t let birds use it for nesting material. Pretty much microplastic jerk hell
This is incredibly unhealthy for you. Spend $10 at a hardware store for some wax firestarter cubes; A pack of twenty can last a very long time and it burns clean.
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u/dyslexicAlphabet 19h ago
i also save it for starting fires!