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Save water by doing less laundry
Challenge Type: engineering
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$1,000
top 10
179
submissions
DONE
100 months ago

The average washing machine can use up to 45 gallons of water per load and the average American family does 8-10 loads of laundry per week. Many locations around the world including Brazil and India have inadequate access to water to do proper laundry and in drought-stricken California washing clothes with nearly 500 of gallons of water per week does not make for an environmentally friendly family.

Clothes need to be laundered because of smells and stains, but sometimes a full soak and cycle in a laundry machine is overkill for what needs to be done. We're looking for ways to "refresh" clothes in order to keep them ready to wear. How would you get clothes cleaned up without putting them through the wash?

Deliverables

Propose a way to "refresh" clothes without putting them through a laundry machine:

1. What is your clothing "refreshing" technique?

2. How does it effectively remove stains and/or odors from clothes?

3. Why would consumers use this product vs. the traditional laundry process?

4. (optional) Sketches, drawings, mock-ups, charts, graphs or any other visuals to support your argument

Things to consider:

- Your idea will save the earth, but it shouldn't do so at the expense of consumer's wallets and time. Try to make sure your idea is economically and logistically feasible.

- Don't be afraid to get technical with your ideas if they involve product designs, renderings, chemical compounds or otherwise- include as much detail as you like!

    Submissions will be graded on the following criteria:
  • Meets Deliverables
  • Creativity
  • Clarity
Reward Tiers
5 Winners
will receive $150 each
5 Honorable Mentions
will receive $50 each
Leaderboard
$150.00 Sarah Bahn Tufts University
$150.00 Gabriel Fishbein University of Maryland
$150.00 Devin Otto University of California at Davis
$150.00 Ryan Altizer Fordham University
$150.00 shiva mangal Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay
$50.00 Dane White University of Central Florida
$50.00 Ryan Kobe Utah State University
$50.00 Britney Mc Kenna University of Central Florida
$50.00 Miranda Dobron-Darling University of Virginia
$50.00 Harry Irvine Bhtafe
Submission questions


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