The great thing about showers is that they’re quick. If you need to quickly wash your hair and body, you can hop in and do your thing and be on your way. While some people might be tempted to spend a while under the stream of hot water, a shower curtain created by designer Elisabeth Buecher makes that all but impossible.
Spiky shower curtains kicks you out after 4 minutes to save water. Designed by Elisabeth Buecher. pic.twitter.com/nAZTcrzkjM
— EcoCodex (@EcoCodex) July 22, 2015
- It’s called “Spiky.” Spiky is basically a normal shower curtain… unless you take too long and start wasting water. Then the “spikes” inflate by filling with air, basically kicking you out and forcing you to shut it down. Thankfully, the spikes aren’t actually painful in any way, just rather uncomfortable to share a cramped shower space with.
- It could save a lot of water. While there’s nothing wrong with wanting to enjoy a relaxing shower, the fact is that staying in for too long wastes tons of water. Buecher, a UK-based designer, made the curtain with a rig that hooks up to the tap. After four minutes, the rig triggers the spikes to fill with air and pushes the user out. If nothing else, it’s certain to make you think twice about wasting so much.
- Unfortunately, it’s only an art installation for now. The product, while amazing, doesn’t actually exist. Well, it does, but it’s not commercially available and isn’t something that you can buy in stores at the moment. However, that’s not to say it can never happen! “I would love to develop it into a commercial product,” Buecher told Huffington Post. “People get very excited about it for lots of different reasons … design, ecology, education, art. The curtains [create] a lot of interesting discussions across fields.”
- It’s important to think about the resources we use. Is taking a 15 minute shower really going to collapse the world’s ecosystem? No, but consider how many billions of people are on the planet and how much water we waste every day by leaving the taps running while we’re brushing our teeth, taking long showers, etc. A little bit adds up to a whole lot over time, so it’s good to be a little more aware of it and maybe change our habits in small ways.
