“Microfibers are one of the most common forms of microplastic pollution, and washing machines send large quantities of textile fibers into wastewater. A number of companies have now developed filters designed to catch microfibers,” and “some appliance manufacturers are beginning to integrate them into their washing machines,” notes The Doomslayer.
The Guardian reports:
Matter Industries founder Adam Root has developed a filter to trap microfibres at home and on an industrial scale…
Root’s invention is the basis of his Bristol-based company, Matter Industries, which claims it can capture 97% of microfibres before they escape a washing machine. In 2025, it made Matter a runner-up in the oceans category of the Earthshot prize….Matter’s filter is now available in more than 30 European markets and the UK, and the company plans to expand to the US…
His invention joins others including Xeros, and the US-based Cleanr and Filtrol, that work to filter out microplastic before it reaches waterways.
His filter cleaning itself is, according to Root, what makes his particular invention unique. Matter Industries finds that each wash cycle produces about 1g of fibre waste, and to capture as much as possible the mesh must be especially fine. But this makes filters prone to blockage, so Root’s version rinses itself after each wash, clearing the mesh surface so that wastewater can continue flowing through.
More than two-thirds of all clothing contains plastic textiles such as polyester, nylon and acrylic, which shed billions of fibers into waterways. Each year, the world’s washing machines may discharge as much as a million tons of clothing fiber into rivers and eventually the ocean.
Studies suggest that microfibers are the most commonly-found type of microplastic in the environment. “They’re among the most common types of microplastics found in tissue samples of species across the board. So they’re a massive part of the problem,” says an environmentalist. The Guardian says “they can constitute more than 90% of the microplastics that marine animals consume, and are present in the air, our drinking water and food.”
Water hyacinth get rid of microplastics and heavy metal pollution, according to a recent study.
Mussels are proliferating at Virginia Beach. This is good, because “the bivalves are powerhouses for cleaning the river. Their recent growth likely reflects improvements in water quality, which then becomes a happily reinforcing cycle.” They are “great at stabilizing marshes to prevent erosion, which is particularly important in the face of rising sea levels.”
In Germany, a sludge-filled river became a thriving ecosystem: “For more than a century, Germany’s Emscher river carried sewage and industrial sludge through the Ruhr, earning a reputation as an open sewer. Now, after a massive cleanup, the river is becoming a thriving ecosystem once again.”
The river that flows through Paris has become so much cleaner that you can now swim in it, even though swimming in it was banned for a century for health reasons.
