Spotted:  Students from Kaist University in South Korea have designed a sustainable solution to enhance the life quality of people in less economically developed countries (LEDCS). Their design, Vortex Laundry, enables clothes to be washed without electricity, manpower, or synthetic detergent. 

Limited people in LEDCs have access to electricity-powered washing machines, and so wash their belongings at the riverside. Not only does this require intense physical labour, but synthetic detergent also causes severe water pollution. 

Vortex Laundry is designed to be used with existing plastic containers. Using the flow of rivers instead of human power, it creates a vortex and enhances the speed of the water. The vortex then hits the fabric of clothes and washes the dirt out, and as the propeller rotates the small container, the dirty laundry in the container rotates too.

With the ceramic balls replacing synthetic detergent, Vortex Laundry is also a much more eco-friendly washing machine. The ceramic balls produce an infrared ray, with negative ions encouraging atomic particles to gather around the dirt and wash out of the fabric easily. 

Future developments include employing the device as a dryer with the use of airflow, instead of water.

Written By: Katrina Lane

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