The first of 200 eco-friendly laundry cleaning vending machines has been installed on the London Underground.

Offering a cheap and easily accessible alternative to dry cleaning, VDrops machines charge just £2.50 for a shirt or £3 for other garments and take 24 hours to clean your dirty laundry and make them available for pick up again.

You bundle your clothes in one end and they are presented again, cleaned and hand-finished for you to take back home.

The first machine has been installed at Epping station, with it opening to commuters from Saturday 6 October.

The company behind them, VClean Life, is working with Transport for London to then roll out new machines across the network, starting with North Greenwich, Loughton, South Woodford and Woodford.

To use the machines, customers need to sign up online at vclean.life. They will each then get a unique QR code to use with the vending machines when booking in their laundry.

Deposited laundry is picked up by VClean Life's fleet and cleaned using biodegradable detergent and conditioners. It is a process the company claims is more gentle than handwashing and better for the environment that traditional dry cleaning.

Suede, leather and other delicate materials can also be handled by the firm, but may incur small extra charges.