Weird Commerce: Eco-Friendly Clothes Washer Via Drumi

Environmental awareness will likely always be a continual evolving global concept. As long as people continue to use the earth’s resources to live on, initiatives that help preserve the planet will take place.

From bringing reusable bags to the grocery store to riding bicycles for transportation and installing solar panels for electricity, there are a myriad of ways people are trying to move the environmental protection ball in terms of reducing their own carbon footprint.

One company that’s hoping to help push a more environmentally conscious movement forward is Canadian-based product design company Yirego. At the core of the company’s mission is to help reduce people’s carbon footprint through developing various eco-friendly household products. One of the first products put out by the company is a washing machine dubbed Drumi that uses no electricity and minimal amounts of water. To learn more specifically about Yirego’s Drumi and where it plans to take the clothes washing product in the future, we spoke with the company’s representative, Alastair Lillico.

Standard washing machines use an exorbitant amount of energy. For each wash cycle, there is 50 liters (13 gallons) of water and a minimum of 500 watts of power used to get clothes clean. With today’s ultra busy lifestyles, consumers may not have the time to dedicate to moving in the polar opposite direction of washing clothes by hand on a washboard and hanging them out to dry on a clothes line. As such, most consumers likely throw their dirty clothes in the washer without thinking twice.

To help reduce the amount of water and energy typically wasted in a standard wash cycle and to help out urbanites that don’t always have instant access to laundry machines, Yirego’s founder came up with a new solution in the Drumi product offering. Lillico highlighted this by saying, “The inspiration for the Drumi came from our founder Yi Jiang realizing the issues that most people faced in urban areas, when doing their laundry. He found from his own experiences, as well as other people that he knew, that they would often haul their laundry to laundromats or laundry rooms in their apartment buildings that were either costly, wasteful or unpleasant to be in. He realized that there could be a better way and began developing Drumi.”

The Drumi washing machine uses small amounts of water and detergent to wash clothes. While there are no plugs or cords, the Drumi machine is powered by a foot pedal at the base and takes about 10 minutes to complete rather than the standard 45-minute wash cycle.

After the company ships out all of its pre-ordered Drumi machines, Yirego plans to expand into other markets. Currently, the company is undergoing negotiations to put Drumi in retail stores but has not disclosed the outlet names at this time.

Lillico also shared Yirego’s long-term plans for the future of the Drumi washing machine. He said, “Yirego’s plans of the future consist of reaching new and developing markets. We see great potential in many parts of the world, that we believe need efficient and high-quality eco-products like the Drumi. We eventually plan to focus on other household product, and to offer a wider catalogue of choices to our customers.”

Given the household appliance market’s projected revenue growth reaching $343.98 billion by the year 2020, any piece of that pie is likely to be a worthy avenue to follow. Companies choosing to gravitate toward more eco-friendly products combined with consumers’ penchant for seeking out ways to help combat global warming, it’s likely that Yirego is heading in the right direction.