PlanetCare Filter

Remediation Strategy

Prevention

Plastic Type

Microplastics

Invention Category

Laundry

Used?

Yes

Included in analysis?

Yes

Location Invented

United Kingdom

Year^*

2019

Description

Microfiber filter for washing machines.

Effectiveness or Ecological Impact

Non-peer-reviewed Effectiveness

A single filter lasts for 3 months, with a proven efficiency to stop 90% of microfibers. More than 95% of fibers will be caught (PlanetCare Fibrestop Project, n.d.).

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

One source reported it captures 25 ± 20% of microfibers (Napper et al., 2020), however another reported it can captures 70% of microfibers (Ramasamy & Subramanian, 2021).

References

PlanetCare. (n.d.). How It Works. PlanetCare. https://planetcare.org/pages/how-it-works

Non-peer-reviewed Effectiveness

PlanetCare Fibrestop Project. (n.d.). PlanetCare. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://planetcare.org/pages/fibrestop-project-europe

Peer-reviewed Effectiveness

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.