Hills Clotheslines have always been the natural fresh-air way to dry your clothes. Now, they take advantage of eco-smart packaging solutions too.

The latest generation of clotheslines have significantly reduced packaging dimensions and have been designed with sustainability top of mind. These new products are easier to handle and transport, whilst also reducing the amount of packaging material used.

For the company’s flagship product, Hills Rotary Hoists, the reduced carton cross section means that over 20% of the cardboard has been eliminated – that’s 16,000 square metres each year. In addition, large protective plastic packaging blocks have been removed from the packaging specifications by redesigning the product to be “self protective”, removing 23 tonnes of plastic from the clothesline’s packaging each year. 

Members of the Hills Home and Hardware Products design team regularly attend professional development forums on innovation and recently participated in a session on on bio-mimicry design principles. Bio-mimicry - as a tall tree can grow from a tiny seed that contains essential material to grow when it is planted, so too can a clothesline “grow” from a small box when it is assembled.

This philosophy was developed and applied to Hills clotheslines by the eco-savvy design team.

Hills Clothesline packaging replaced expanded polystyrene (EPS) with cardboard cushioning several years ago.  EPS is not readily recyclable and so most EPS in packaging ends up in landfill where it occupies a large volume, as it is largely composed of air and does not break down. Cardboard, on the other had is accepted for recycling throughout Australia.

We are also changing our boxes to use unbleached materials. The smart new boxes are more eye-catching and appealing than ever, whilst the unbleached pulp means less toxicity and emissions associated with the manufacture of the cardboard. And what’s more, the box used in the Hills Adda Garden Instant Garden Bed product is also designed to be re-used to line the garden bed, providing a source of mulch and nutrition for plants!

Click here to see the full range of Hills Clotheslines