We all know just how dirty our hands feel after gently grasping the greasy subway handles. As I’m sure we could have guessed, it turns out that the subway is littered with bacteria from Enterococcus to Streptococcus (if you don’t know what those bacterias are, you’re better off). These bacterias can make you sick, especially when they are trapped in an enclosed subway car. (FastCompany)

We’ve tried our best to stay healthy when riding the disease-infested trains, from constantly carrying around hand-sanitizer to washing our hands as soon as we reach our final destination. But what if we didn’t have to feel like we walked into a petri dish upon entering a subway car? It seems that a quick-fix is in the works, and we couldn’t be more excited.

Designers Li Jiyang, Liu Tao, Qiu Zhen, Zeng Jiayu, and Zhou Shen created the Cyclean system, a self-cleaning conveyor-belt hanging strap. It works on a rotation. When you go to grab the strap, pull down to release the clean strap from the belt loop. This will send the soiled strap back into the Cyclean chamber to disinfect so the next rider can enjoy a clean strap as well. According to FastCompany: the strap is scrubbed as it it coils around a spool, scraping against a rough sponge and getting doused with disinfectant. The side of the chamber pops open to let whomever’s in charge of maintenance replace the sponge and refill the disinfectant.

Another plus to this system is that it wouldn’t require replacing all of the existing subway poles, since it can hang freely from the poles in the cars. This will in turn save money, while helping to keep us clean and illness-free! While this apparatus is still in the works, we can’t wait for it go into production. (FastCompany)

Featured image via Red Dot Design Award