Use a Plastic Washing Machine Instead of Water

Maria
#1. August 3rd, 2008, at 4:04 AM.

I totally love this concept!! How affordable will it be, I wonder???

Thal
#2. August 3rd, 2008, at 9:44 PM.

This makes no sense.

First, there’s no way the chips won’t be caught up in the clothes themselves. They will come out WITH the clothes.

Also, they don’t have enough weight to “beat” dirt out, and a cup of water and a “bit” of detergent won’t clean anything.

Finally, even with only a cup of water, the clothes will not come out dry, and there’s nothing to remove stains.

erik
#3. August 4th, 2008, at 12:35 AM.

wont they get stuck in your clothes?

Gregory DuBois
#4. August 4th, 2008, at 1:11 AM.

An obvious flaw: By what extraction method do you remove the plastic chips from all the entertwined clothes at the end of the wash cycle?

Also, what do you do with all the dirty chips once the recepticle is used? A land fill problem newly created.

Thirdly, plastic chips, a by product of petroleum. aren’t we trying to get away from using so much petrochemicals?

Chris
#5. August 4th, 2008, at 5:21 AM.

I’m concerned about the use of plastic. Are these plastic chips recyclable? Biodegradable? Petroleum based? I prefer the soap nut approach which seems like it may be commercialized in a couple years.

Peter
#6. August 5th, 2008, at 4:07 PM.

dear green eco friend,

you state: “use…”, but the machine is not available. i am dissapointed.

peter

Philippe
#7. August 8th, 2008, at 10:32 PM.

Will probably worn the clothes faster…

dayrider
#8. August 14th, 2008, at 1:54 AM.

I don’t think that this idea will be taken up by the average housewife. It dosn’t seem at all practical to me, as the washing may leave the machine with bits of plastic ‘confetti’ stuck in the pockets of shirts etc. Why have to bother about puchasing BOTH washing powder and the rare plastic flakes which could soon go out of fashion and become unobtainable…..Good luck with your next project !

Anonymous
#9. August 18th, 2008, at 10:40 PM.

Henkel holds a patent of a washing machine using ultrasonic.
when i was a atudent i use to work at siemens in munich where we produced microchips.
on the 4th floor of our facility we use to have a machine almost like the one henkel has the patent of (to deep clean accessories and tools), and used to bring our difficult stains to clean it there … guess what - hankel produces detergents and is never gonna produce that machine … environmental care is always in the way of business …

Robyn
#10. August 20th, 2008, at 2:46 PM.

Thal, the detergent is there to remove stains.

Also, this is a great concept. Sure there might be landfill scares and such, but what would you rather have–our watertable polluted and depleted due to the overuse of commercial washing machines, or a little something extra in a landfill which is there and growing already anyway? Aren’t we also going to put our old washing machines there too if we just replace them with this?

If you want to be very ecologically responsible, handwash clothing in rainwater from a barrel and use that water to water your garden later on.

We really need to think of better ways to conserve what limited resources we have. This is a great idea for the conservation of water.

hoss
#11. August 21st, 2008, at 6:15 PM.

horrid idea. a “green eco” washer that includes this much plastic to save some water is not considerate of future waste handling. it’s bad enough that we have to eternally recycle plastic so we don’t end up permanently adding it to our ecosystem. the likelihood of these plastic pieces getting into the environment is very high. get away from plastic. new truly “green” products should remember this.

Anonymous
#12. October 23rd, 2008, at 1:42 AM.

Think of all the extra plastic you’ll be using. This is terrible for the environment.

cchiovitti
#13. October 24th, 2008, at 4:54 AM.

I can just picture “chips” falling all over my laundry room floor, inconveniently stuck to sheets that you won’t discover until to crawl in to bed at night, socks full of them, holes in lighter fabric, snags in sheer fabric, pills on sweaters, and the chips themselves tearing the flanges on front load machines or clogging the outbound pipes.

Jim
#14. November 1st, 2008, at 2:20 AM.

Are all you commenters engineers? Have an open mind instead of propogating negativity. At least the people at Xeros are thinking proactively. Clearly this is an IDEA and maybe we should all take the time to LEARN more about it before spouting such off-the-cuff criticisms. I’m not saying this is a good idea but if you are taking the time to engage then at least ask questions instead of just being dismissive with absolutes.

Frame your commentary in a productive manner. Anyone can tear anything down. Real truth is only elucidated through questioning.

Oded
#15. November 4th, 2008, at 9:54 PM.

Thank you Jim, you expressed my thoughts as well.

Cerberos
#16. December 15th, 2008, at 7:37 PM.

There are no short-cuts. If you want to clean your clothes without wasting resources and damaging the environment then wash them in a river with biodegradable soap.

An hones chap
#17. December 26th, 2008, at 6:12 PM.

The virtual water used in the plastic production will cancel the saving of actual water. Basically this won’t work

frojoe2004
#18. January 3rd, 2009, at 6:13 AM.

This is stupid,

Plastic is made out of OIL!!!!!!!!!!

Why would we want to start waisting valuable oil and plastic on this?

Sure water is valuable, but water can be filtered and cleaned. I’m sure these plastic chips are promptly discarded into the landfills with all the rest of the stuff we needlessly harvested the earths limited resources to create and waist.

Think about where everything comes from, ends up, how much it costs to get from where it came from, and to where its going, how much gas and resources that took, as well as processing and refining, and all the heat and energy it takes to house the factory’s that make the acid to make the plastic, to make the metal, and the batteries, and the curcut boards. Consumerism is not Ecologically friendly, and it is not green. So please before you buy something new, go to good will, and remember your 3 R’s

Reduce (If you don’t need it, don’t get it. avoid heavily packaged items, and things in disposable bottles, reduce the energy it takes to feed you by starting a garden and buying your food and products from local farms and producers)

Reuse (reuse your jelly jars as glasses, or that broken mirror as a mosaek)

Recycle (Recycle all of your waist, paper, glass, metal, plastic, and organic waist. start a compost pile for your vegetable garden)

The only things that should be in the trash are things that can not be reused, or recycled.

Forcemaster2000
#19. January 4th, 2009, at 11:08 PM.

How are you supposed to get the plastic chips out of your clothes…you just know they’ll end up stuck inside your clothes and you’ll spend tons of time trying to get them out. Also, they say the plastic chips can be used up to 100 times, that means we’ll just be creating more plastic that will end up in landfills. Not very eco-friendly in the end.

Asset management software
#20. March 26th, 2009, at 12:40 PM.

Great to see green ideas like this - thanks!