By Michael Graham Richard, Source: Treehugger

Washing clothes is a huge drain on freshwater resources. According to the EPA, the average washing machine uses about 41 gallons of water per load and is the second largest water user in your home, and the average American family washing almost 400 loads of laundry each year. The problem is particularly acute in regions of the world where water is scarce, and getting scarcer with population growth and urban migration, as well as more frequent droughts. High-efficiency front-loaders do better than the old top-loaders, but they still use a lot of water and detergent. What if there was a way to take a leap forward and reduce water use by an order of magnitude?