EU Urged To Mandate Microplastic Filters In New Washing Machines
Jamie Hailstone | April 21, 2023 | Forbes
The European Union (EU) has been urged to mandate the fitting of filters in all new washing machines to tackle the growing issue of microplastic pollution.
The call has been made in a new whitepaper, which has been delivered to European Commission members ahead of an EU initiative to tackle microplastics, due to be published next month.
It argues washing machine filters are the only effective, near-term solution to reduce the release of microplastics in the environment.
Every year more than half a million tonnes of microfibres are released into the world's oceans simply from washing our clothes.
And the growing demand for fast fashion and the proliferation of synthetic textiles means more plastic microfibres are expected to be used in the future.
Dr. Paul Servin, the chief science officer at Xeros, said plastic microfibres break off from clothes during the washing process, and end up in wastewater treatment plants, or sometimes going straight into the river or the oceans.
Servin said in an interview, wastewater plants in developed countries can capture between 70 and 99% of microfibres, but only 20% of all the wastewater in the world is actually being treated.
He added many wastewater plants can trap microfibres in sewage sludge, which can then re-enter the environment when sold as fertilizer to farmers.
If the microfibres are not trapped, they can end up in rivers and oceans, which creates further problems.
“We're pushing out half a million tonnes of micro-plastics into our oceans every year, that take hundreds of years to degrade,” said Servin.
“Once these microfibres are out in the ocean, you cannot filter them out. The easiest way of dealing with them is to have the filtration installed in the washing machine and capture them at source.”
The whitepaper is authored by a Plastic Planet, Matter, PlanetCare, Xeros and 5 Gyres Institute
And it has been supported by various organisations, such as Plastic Soup Foundation, Fashion Revolution, Ocean Conservancy and Good on You.
