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Say Goodbye to Dirty Dishes

by Tom Conlon on September 17, 2007 at 12:22 PM

Say Goodbye to Dirty Dishes

Some people believe Hell is a kitchen sink and a never-ending pile of dirty dishes, and for those people salvation lies at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That's where grad student Leonardo Bonanni has developed the DishMaker, a machine that creates dishware on demand, and will someday be able to recycle dirty dishes into the raw material needed to make new ones.

The machine is the latest development in a movement to bring rapid prototyping into the American home. In recent months, we've seen a machine that can print and bind any book in less than 15 minutes. We've also seen advances in affordable 3-D printers, which will someday be able to fabricate objects -- such as a toothbrush – much in the same way today's printers fabricate documents.

Bonanni's machine can create acrylic dishes, bowls and cups as the user needs them. What's different about the DishMaker is that it will someday be able to recycle dirty dishes into new ones. Not only would this eliminate a dreaded household chore, but it would also eliminate the need for most of your cabinets.

Yes, paper plates have afforded us this same convenience for many years now, and yes, if the DishMaker ever comes to market you can bet it'll cost an arm and a leg. But, sometimes you just need to ask yourself, W.W.A.G.D.? ("What Would Al Gore Do?")

From Gizmag

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Tags: dish, dishes, dishwasher, fabricate, future, green, kitchen, recycle

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