Waterless washing machines to debut in the UK

A washing machine using as little as a cup of water for each washing cycle could go on sale to environmentally conscious Britons next year. Plastic chips are used to remove dirt and stains from clothes, leaving them dry and reducing energy consumption as there is no need to use a dryer after the washing cycle, Xeros Ltd, the firm that spun out of the University of Leeds to commercialize the technology, said in a statement. The price of the new machines was "not expected to be dramatically different from (conventional) washing machines".

A typical washing machine uses about 35 kilograms of water for every kilogram of clothes, in addition to the power needed to heat the water and dry the clothes. (Link)