The refurbishment of old electrical appliances generally enables a second use and can thus make a significant contribution to the circular economy. However, refurbished old appliances are not necessarily more environmentally friendly than new appliances, as the latter usually require considerably less energy and resources to operate. Usually, such innovations are only applied to new appliances. However, used appliances have a particularly high potential for saving energy and resources.

In this project, technical solutions for an eco-efficient and economically viable reprocessing of used washing machines were developed in cooperation with the company Impuls-Recycling (Karlsruhe). Promising approaches to energy reduction, that have been systematically tested lie in the area of the

  • Shorten the heating time and reduce the amount of water,
  • Hot water supply,
  • Reduction of the detergent required and automatic loading,
  • Improve washing efficiency.

The development of the technical solutions was accompanied scientifically by the IZT in order to obtain information about the environmental effects and costs of the various measures.