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STORY: UNEP / UNITED STATES YOUNG CHAMPION OF THE EARTH
TRT: 05:15
SOURCE: UNEP
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 10 JULY 2025, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES / 12 AUGUST 2025, ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, UNITED STATES / UNDATED, DUSTI DISTRICT, TAJIKISTAN
12 AUGUST 2025, ST LOUIS, MISSOURI, UNITED STATES
1. Various shots, Noemi Florea collects water sample from Missouri River
10 JULY 2025, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
“We're working to address challenges of tap water contamination, wastewater pollution, and water scarcity, as they affect low-income communities in the US and around the world.”
3. Various shots, Florea installs and demonstrates Cycleau system
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
“The challenges of aging infrastructure and climate change, which affect local tap water quality and the quality of open waterways, can affect everything in a community, from people's health to their economic opportunities.”
5. Various shots, Florea installs and demonstrates Cycleau system
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
“Without access to clean tap water, a community can't thrive.”
7. Various shots, Cycleau public bottle filling station
8. Med shot, Florea drinking water in front of Cycleau unit
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
“With our product Cycleau, we are working to increase access to clean water through point-of-use tap water treatment combined with onsite greywater recycling. In doing so, we aim to diversify and decentralize much of the ageing infrastructure found in US cities.”
UNDATED, DUSTI DISTRICT, TAJIKISTAN
10. Various shots, dry wells, and taps
11. Various shots, Cycleau installation
10 JULY 2025, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
We do this through our technology capable of treating over 200 contaminants to improve the quality of local tap water and treat it of heavy metals and bacteria. By actually recycling the greywater that goes down the drain, we can further reduce the cost of that water and even help people save on their utilities.
UNDATED, DUSTI DISTRICT, TAJIKISTAN
13. Various shots, Cycleau testing and assembly
10 JULY 2025, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, UNITED STATES
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Noemi Florea, Founder and CEO, Laero:
I feel most motivated to continue working towards clean water access when I see how people's eyes light up at the idea that the greywater that's going down their drain can actually be treated by a small device to potable standards, and it can actually redeliver that clean tap water to their own faucets.”
UNDATED, DUSTI DISTRICT, TAJIKISTAN
15. Various shots, Cycleau installation
16. Various shots, Noemi demonstrates running tap
In Baltimore, Maryland, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noemi Florea volunteered at food and water distribution drives and met families who had lost safe running water — whether from contamination, shutoffs, or unpaid bills.
Florea said, “even in a wealthy American city, people still lack clean tap water because of the effects of antiquated infrastructure and rising water utility rates.”
Florea’s solution is Cycleau, a compact unit that fits under a sink to recycle greywater into potable water. Cycleau has been piloted in diverse contexts, from a wastewater treatment project in New York, to a public bottle filling station in Baltimore, to schools and health centres along the Tajikistan–Afghanistan border.
The patent-pending system uses four stages of treatment to remove contaminants and cut water use by up to 80 percent, while reducing energy demand at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems.
Cycleau addresses two urgent challenges: the rising global demand for clean, affordable water and the strain of aging infrastructure in both developed and developing contexts. By treating and reusing water close to where it’s consumed, it reduces waste, eases pressure on utilities, and ensures households have a dependable source of safe drinking water.
For this achievement, Florea has been named a 2025 Young Champion of the Earth by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Planet A. The award provides funding, mentorship, and global recognition to help scale bold ideas from young environmental innovators.
