Washing away the water with your washing machine waste

Washing Machine Waste

The average UK household uses roughly 40 pints of water a day using washing machines, this figure has risen sharply over the last few years, since 1990 washing machine usage has gone up by a massive 23% due to the fact that the average household now washes their clothes on average 4 times a week compared to  15 years ago when it was just 3. Throughout the country this equals around 800 million pints of water which would fill 145 sizes Olympic swimming pools. Can we reduce this washing machine waste?

In the past many people used commercial laundry equipment in laundrettes to wash their clothes but as washing machines have got significantly cheaper this area has now declined.

The British government has said that it wants to decrease water usage by 2010 but as more and more people look to save time and money this target does seem like it will be met. But now there appears to be a way that this could all change. “Xeros” is allready being dubbed the new Dyson, which was the bagless cleaner the re invented the way we cleaned in the mid 90′s.

The machine uses only 2% of the water conventional large washing machines use which makes it the first virtually waterless washing machine. The Researchers at Leeds University where this product is being tested claim the technology  could be ready as early as 2009. It works by the use of thousands of small plastic chips which are around half a centimetre in size which then absorb and remove dirt. Around 20 kilos of these chips are loaded in each wash with a small cup of water, this is then heated to help disolve the dirt and then the chips remove it.

The company behind the product hope this will change the way we wash our clothes and could not only save money but also the environment, it is also hope this technology could be used in commercial dishwashers as well as many other water using household items

Related articles on washing machine waste

• Washing Clothes Without Water
• A Very Very Small Washing Machine
• Virtually waterless washing machine edges closer to production

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