Cora Ball

Remediation Strategy

Prevention

Plastic Type

Microplastics

Invention Category

Laundry

Used?

Yes

Included in analysis?

Yes

Location Invented

United States

Year^*

2019

Description

Balls placed in the laundry machine capture microfibers shed when washing synthetic fibers.

Effectiveness or Ecological Impact

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

It reduces microfiber leakage by 26% (on average) (McIlwraith et al., 2019). It reduces microfiber weight by 5% (Ramasamy & Subramanian, 2021). It can capture 10% of microfibers (Kärkkäinen & Sillanpää, 2021). It can capture 35% of microfibers (Ramasamy & Subramanian, 2021). It can reduce microfiber length by 11% (McIlwraith et al., 2019). It can capture 31 ± 8% of microfibers (Napper et al., 2020).

References

Cora Ball—The Laundry Ball Protecting the Ocean and Your Clothes. (n.d.). Cora Ball. Retrieved September 6, 2023, from https://www.coraball.com/

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

Kärkkäinen, N., & Sillanpää, M. (2021). Quantification of different microplastic fibres discharged from textiles in machine wash and tumble drying. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(13), 16253–16263. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11988-2; Kart, n.d.; McIlwraith, H. K., Lin, J., Erdle, L. M., Mallos, N., Diamond, M. L., & Rochman, C. M. (2019). Capturing microfibers – marketed technologies reduce microfiber emissions from washing machines. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 13; Napper, I. E., Barrett, A. C., & Thompson, R. C. (2020). The efficiency of devices intended to reduce microfibre release during clothes washing. Science of The Total Environment, 738, 140412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.140412; Ramasamy, R., & Subramanian, R. B. (2021). Synthetic textile and microfiber pollution: A review on mitigation strategies. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 28(31), 41596–41611. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14763-z

* Year designates the year invented; if the year invented was unavailable, the earliest year that an article about the technology was published was used.