Well, they are just going to come to my house and prove that. Great post, Autumn.

Now all we need is a mass-produced car that runs on only one cup of gasoline and leaves our wallets virtually full. ; P

Sounds interesting. It is hard to believe that they get as clean with 1 cup of water. Also, every 100 loads you have 44 pounds of these plastic chips to deal with. We do a load a day at my house (or more)so every 3-4 months you have to get new one. Plus taking the chips out each load would be a pain.

The article says that the chips filter out at the end of the cycle through a grate at the bottom.

I'm wondering how the chip that takes some of the lipstick off doesn't smear it onto another piece of clothing. I'd love to see it in action!

My question is what happens to the plastic chips afterwards. Are they just disposed of? Are they created out of recycled material to begin with? How much water/oil products are used in the creation of these plastic chips.

I think it's a great idea, but at the end of the day it needs careful examination to determine whether we'd just be exchanging one problem for another.

I'm seriously doubting all those plastic chips are falling back through the grill. And I second MissLesh's questions.

Sounds interesting but I'm skeptical.

I imagine the chips can be recycled/cleaned. Melting down chips, and re-shredding them can't take too much energy.

I've learned that just because something is difficult to believe doesn't mean it isn't true.

However, I am guessing that since this is still in the design phase they have glorified it to the extreme. Sure, maybe it uses less water than now. However, perhaps the "1 cup" used in operation is the absolute bare minimum that is possible to clean the cleanest most unsoiled clothes.

Who knows, could be possible.
However, like many of you I doubt that dealing with all those plastic chips would be much fun.

While I would completely welcome technology like this, I seriously doubt I would make use of it. At least not as long as I'm washing diapers. I have a really hard time that this system could properly clean a load of diapers.

20 kilos of chips - can't see anybody pouring that into the washer every time a wash is needed!