If like Gwen Stefani, you love to wash in your old bathwater, you’re in luck. Swedish designer David Bruer and five of his classmates designed the ReFresh shower, which slurps up your shower runoff, filters it, and sprays it back on you.

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David Bruer

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Why would you want to bathe in your own graywater, you ask? The ReFresh project cites some stats that are as chill-inducing as a “Who flushed the toilet?!” blast of cold water:

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  • A 20-minute shower uses as much energy as watching TV for three days straight
  • 60 percent of a household’s hot water goes down the shower drain
  • 20 percent of the global population doesn’t have access to clean water

For those of us who want to cut back, yet somehow can’t make the leap from showering once a month to NEVER, it’s pretty cool. And the ReFresh project is heating up (if you will), placing in the top five in Sweden’s major design contest and landing a sponsor to develop the concept further.

But if you aren’t wild about soaping up in the spray that just washed your filth down the drain, you can always just get the gadget that yells at you when your shower’s gone on too long.