If astronauts can drink water recycled from their urine and Orange county residents can sip on recycled sewage water, then surely people can drink water from their shower, too. Four French design school students came up with a clever concept: They proposed using a plant system made of sand, reeds, rushes, a mesh filter, water hyacinths and lemnas, and a carbon filter that can be placed underneath the tub to recycle the water used during a shower. After the water goes through eight filtering steps, the contaminants in the water, like shampoo and soap (and your newly-removed dirt), can be turned into tasty, drinkable water. The Daily Mail reports:
[Designer Jun] Yasumoto, 34, said: "These plants have been proven to be able to remove the chemicals from your shampoo." Using a natural filtering principle called phyto-purification, the bathroom becomes a mini-eco-system by recycling and regenerating the wastewater.
The designers put their drawings online—and, not surprisingly, people soon wrote to them and asked how they could purchase the system. But sadly, the concept has not actually been built yet. On the bright side, there are other ways of conserving water in the bathroom—like peeing in the shower. Related Content: DISCOVER: From Toilet To Tap Discoblog: Not Subtle, But It Works: Peepoo Bag Converts Human Waste Into Fertilizer Discoblog: Celebrities Sell Cars, Beer, Clothes…and Toilet Use?
Image: flickr/ cool3c
