Saving The World. First Stop: Laundromat.

Water is an essential commodity.  Unlike gasoline, you can't live without water... so, what we are seeing now with gas crisis is nothing compared to what we will see in a century if we don't figure out how to be more economic with the ol' H2O.  We've got some major desalinization projects going on to get portable water from salt water (there's a lot of that salty water around).  Dean Kamen has created the Slingshot that looks very promising in creating water from anything.  (Read: Desalinization?  Meet Kamen.  He Might Save the World.)  But these things create water, and there will be no hope unless we manage to conserve it.  Like with petroleum, the answer isn't to find more, the answer is to diminish the usage per person so each additional citizen will leave a smaller footprint than the parents.

Laundry?  As you can imagine, it uses water and energy.  How much?  Washing machines average 44 gallons (167 liters) of water per load.  Ouch.  In addition, they use exorbitant amount of energy, especially when heating water for a hot wash.  Now let's consider how in 1950 there were 2.5 billion people in the world, 6.0 billion in 2000 and and there will by 9.7 billion by 2050.  Those 100 years have a steeeeep climb.  It's a reality, so let's start accounting for it, 'k?

In comes the Xeros machine, straight from Leeds University, that requires one cup of water to do a load of laundry.  One cup.  What is that, in terms of water conservation?  Use the Xeros, and you will save 98% of the water used in standard washers.  Haaaay-seus.  That's the kind of progress we need to live off this planet's limited resources.  So, how will it your clothes get washed with only a glass of water?  Plastic.  Thousands of plastic chips.

See, the Xeros needs four things to clean your laundry.  Dirty clothes, detergent, a glass of water and 44 pounds (20 kg) of specially designed plastic chips.  Less than a centimeter across, these sassy chips and actually trap dirt like magical pieces of perfection.  So, now is when a smart-ass HAWT reader says, "Grrrreat, save water, put add 44 pounds of plastic into the world with every wash."  Then, I inform that these chips can be re-used... to the tune of 100 times.  Thats usually every 6 months on a standard washer.

And energy?  As if water conservation wasn't enough motivation to get one of these on every street corner in the world, this sucker uses much less energy than the standard washer.  How much less?  (How many questions can I ask in this article, then answer them?  Lots.  Is it annoying?  Yes.  Am I sorry?  Yes.  Can I stop?  No.)  About 98% less energy.

Oh, an incidentally, the clothes come out almost totally dry.  Bonus x3.

Oh, and they see this being able to replace dry cleaning, which uses harmful solvents.  Bonus x4.

THAT'S what I'm talking about.

You can read more about Xeros in this Mail Online article.  It's some major HAWT action [hot ak-shuhn].