One of the biggest drains on freshwater resources is the household washing machine. As reported by the EPA, a washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load on average, while a typical US family uses the washing machine once per day. The UK-based company Xeros has come up with a washing technology that uses 70% less water per washing cycle. This technology also uses a special “bead cleaning” method that is environmentally friendly and apparently cleans dirty clothes even better than regular soap.
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Researchers at the University of Illinois, or more precisely the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center, have discovered a process that can turn used plastic shopping bags into a compatible drop-in diesel fuel and a number of petroleum products. The recycling process also works to recover most of the initial manufacturing inputs that go into producing plastic shopping bags. Given that each year an estimated 100 billion shopping bags are thrown away in the US alone, this is great news indeed.

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Solar ovens are a great way to cook sustainably, but they have the drawback of not working very well on cloudy days. However, the new SunFocus solar hybrid oven, made by Sun BD Corporation, takes care of that problem. And what’s more, you can even use this oven to cook at night. This is possible because the SunFocus oven has a hybrid solar and electric system, with the latter taking over once the sun sets or hides behind the clouds.

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