Guppyfriend Washing Bag

Remediation Strategy

Prevention

Plastic Type

Microplastics

Invention Category

Laundry

Used?

Yes

Included in analysis?

Yes

Location Invented

Germany

Year^*

2019

Description

Laundry washing bag that reduces fiber shedding, protects clothes, and filters the microfibers that do break.

Effectiveness or Ecological Impact

Non-peer-reviewed Effectiveness

It reduces the number of fibres that break off (79% reduction in partly synthetic clothes and 86% reduction in completely synthetic clothing). It can withstand 50 household washes according to ISO 6330 without damage (Guppyfriend FAQ, n.d.).

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

One source reported it captures 39% of microfibers (Kärkkäinen & Sillanpää, 2021), while another reported it captures 54 ± 14% of microfibers (Napper et al., 2020).

References

Guppyfriend. (n.d.). FAQ. GUPPYFRIEND. Retrieved January 22, 2023, from https://guppyfriend.us/pages/faq

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; 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

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