Your clothes are harming the planet. Here’s how a new washing machine could stop it

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The fix to one of the biggest marine pollution problems in the world sounds easy — adding a built-in filter to new washing machines.

But the price of adding the filters — which experts say could stop millions of tons of harmful microplastics from reaching rivers and oceans — is causing a bit of pushback in California, the first jurisdiction in North American to consider a bill that would make the filters mandatory.

"Right now cost is a big consideration," said Lisa Erdle, a Toronto native who is the scientific director of the 5 Gyres Institute, a plastic pollution NGO which is co-sponsoring the bill along with the Ocean Conservancy and the Nature Conservancy.

She says appliance manufacturers don't want to add the filters because they will add an additional $20 to $50 to the price of the machines.

"I get it. It's not washing machine manufacturers that are causing the problem. It's a problem with our clothing," said Erdle. "Our clothing contains plastic. It contains harmful chemicals. And it's shedding these particles to the environment," she said. "It's just that washing machines are the vector."

Manufacturers also claim that in testing the filters proved ineffective, led to longer run times for wash cycles, and would be a burden to clean for consumers, according to a statement on the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers website (AHAM).

"It would be more productive to focus on the various originating sources of microfibers to find ways to reduce microfibers in waterways," than to add the filters, said the AHAM.

Microfibers are plastic fibres that shed from synthetic clothing made of fabrics such as polyester and nylon during a wash cycle.

They are light in weight and therefore represent a smaller fraction of total plastic emissions to the environment. But by count, the numbers of microfibers are overwhelming, said Erdle.

One load of laundry can shed up to 18 million pieces.

The fibres represent the bulk of microplastics ingested by marine animals and can cause changes in feeding behaviour and growth. At high doses, they can kill animals. The long fibres — different from typical microplastics which are fragments of plastic smaller than 5 mm — have been found in human placenta and lung tissue.

They have also been found in sewage sludge from wastewater, which is used to fertilize agricultural fields, said Erdle.

The California bill, AB 1628, has gone through the committee process and is now before the state assembly. It has to pass a third reading before it will be sent to the state's upper house, where it will go through the committee process once again.

If it passes, California would require that all new washing machines — residential and commercial — have a mesh microfibre filtration system by Jan. 1, 2029.

France was the first country to mandate the change, requiring that all new washing machines sold by January 2025 have the built-in filters. In 2021, Grundig, a home appliance company, began selling the world's first washing machine with a built-in microfibre filter that it says catches up to 90 per cent of synthetic plastic fibres.

External filtration systems, mounted to a wall, can also be used to screen microplastics from wastewater.

Erdle was involved in a study in Parry Sound, conducted by the Rochman Laboratory at the University of Toronto and Georgian Bay Forever, an environmental non-profit, which studied wastewater after 97 homes were outfitted with the external filters beginning in 2020.

Erdle said that after the external filters were installed, they found a significant reduction of microfibre at the local wastewater treatment plant.

But she says the external filters are more expensive to buy and install — about $200 — and in many homes, they’re not feasible because of the physical location of the washer or dryer.

Although washing machines with the new built-in filters may initially be more expensive, she expects that over time the price will come down.

"Some of our best estimates are that with economies of scale and time, that these things that are built into the machines would be much more cost effective," said Erdle, "like an order of magnitude cheaper to have them built in than have to have them be aftermarket and then installed externally."

The filters could remove microplastics at the source, instead of allowing them to reach the environment, where they’re nearly impossible to remove.

"We know there are these negative effects of these particles getting into the environment," said Erdle. "It makes sense to prevent them from getting there in the first place."

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