Sticking on a wash is just another of life’s mundane little chores, to we largely don’t give much of a second thought, right? But in vast swathes of today’s world, clothes washing remains the back-breaking, time-consuming task that it once was here in London, too, not so very long ago.
“The burden of hand-washing clothes is faced by up to 50% of the global population,” says Flora Edmiston, Partnerships Manager at The Washing Machine Project, a social enterprise working on doing something about improving the situation.
“That burden is predominantly placed on women and girls,” she continues, “costing them time, effort and resources. Essentially barring them from opportunities to work, study, rest and play as they would otherwise choose. We exist to change that.”
From their new (and first London-based) office at North Rd’s Tradestars, Flora and the team promote widespread adoption of the Divya; the world's first flat pack, manual washing machine, designed specifically for communities without reliable access to electricity or plumbing.
It’s a low‑tech, high‑impact kinda innovation, one with the power to change lives all over the world.
“Everything is placed in a door at the top; clothes, two buckets of water, about a palm-full of detergent, and you just give it a spin,” smiles Flora, while demonstrating on the Divya unit that’s showcased handily in their new studio. “The only action is via the handle at the front, and a wash cycle in this machine takes about 30 minutes, with six minutes of turning time spread across that. We found that people can spend up to 20 hours a week hand washing clothes, which is an enormous amount of time. So, when you're using this machine, you're therefore reclaiming 15 hours across a week. I always like to think, what would I do with those 15 hours?”
The positive impacts of the Divya are also environmental, with a 50% saving in water usage compared to hand washing clothes, alongside that epic 75% time saving.
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Over six years and multiple design improvements based on user feedback, The Washing Machine Project is now all set to scale up, with its Bristol-based engineers supported by the growing team here in London.
“Now we're at a point where we've got a product that people really like to use, and it's really effective at cleaning clothes. This year, we're establishing our manufacturing capability in India so that we'll be able to manufacture closer to the people who need the machines. We've worked with a number of partners in India on designing a next generation washing machine and distribution model that will be cheaper, easier to assemble, more sustainable, and will help us to get that scale.”
Late last year, they settled on Tradestars with the help of some AI searches to find where in London would be most commutable spot for the various members of the team - and haven’t looked back since.
From a colourful new workspace - which also doubles as their photography and filming studio for their regular social media posts - to the world, The Washing Machine Project is one of those brilliantly simple ideas that have the outsized ability to blow you away with their potential.
