When it comes to washing machines, even the most efficient ones are exceedingly wasteful. In fact, it takes more than 20 gallons of water to remove just 1 tablespoon of dirt from a batch of laundry. Thankfully a group of students from MIT have invented the AquaFresco, a new washing machine filter that seeks to recycle 95 percent of laundry wastewater. The AquaFresco could allow you to essentially use the same water to wash laundry for up to six months, preventing detergent from polluting groundwater supply, which is a serious environmental concern. The creators of the AquaFresco are testing it in the hotel industry to reduce the high water usage from laundry machines, and if successful, it could be implemented in industrial cleaners and car washes as well. Even NASA has expressed interest in using the technology to make doing laundry in space more efficient.
Here’s a washing machine that filters its own water
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