Simpletribes

The future of washing clothes according to Electrolux Design Lab 2007

A Hungarian design student called Levente Szabo – apparently, his surname means “tailor”, appropriately – has won the Electrolux Design Lab 2007 competition with this concept washing machine that uses “soap nuts”. The E-wash was a response to the brief to design a product that’s both environmentally sound and commercially viable.

Taking his inspiration from India and Nepal where soap nuts – a.k.a. sapindus mucorussi – have been used successfully for centuries, Szabo designed the E-Wash to reduce the pollution of the washing process and packaging and transportation of detergents. The alternative soap would be great for people with allergies and a kilogram of the nuts would last the average person a whole year. The machine itself was also reduced in size and flattened so that it would fit into a small flat and yet take a large load of clothes.

Electrolux Design Lab

Designing a washing machine that uses less water isn’t difficult. New machines with the Energy Star label use only 18 — 25 gallons of water per load (compared to 40 gallons per load for the typical machine) and save about 7,000 gallons of water a year. Think about it 7,000 gallons times millions of machines. I’m getting thirsty!

Kudos to Levenye Szabo and hopefully Electrolux!!

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