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Your Washing Machine Sheds Up to 18 Million Microfibers a Load · How To Protect The Ocean

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  In an earlier episode this week on Monday, I interviewed Dr. Anja
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  Brandon from the Ocean Conservancy.
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  She deals with microfibers.
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  And she was here to tell us, and one of the biggest stat that came out of
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  that that really stuck with me was the fact that one laundry can shed
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  anywhere from a few hundred thousand microfibers to 18 million microfibers.
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  Each one of them are 100 times thinner than a human hair Now, we're gonna follow
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  these microfibers on their actual journey, from your washing machine all the way
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  through the wastewater treatment plant and everything, and back onto your body.
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  And along the way, we're gonna answer the question that Monday's interview left
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  open: Has anyone actually fixed this yet?
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  And that's what we're gonna talk about on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  This is where we talk all things ocean, whether it's ocean news, ocean
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  science, ocean conservation, or ways that we can help, and find out how not
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  only us as individuals can help, but countries can help by enacting policies
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  and regulations that really help.
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  And we're gonna talk about one of those, in the countries that are helping in that.
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  So we're gonna talk all about that, so let's get into it.
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  Now, one of the things that you don't necessarily realize, like, fibers shed
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  constantly, you know, on your clothes, when your clothes that were made, they're
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  worn, especially when they're washed.
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  So hot water, heavy agitation, like a washing cycle, and
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  soap actually make it worse.
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  And we're gonna talk about why.
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  We weren't able to get totally into it with the interview that we did with Anya
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  because we were talking about so many things within the microfibers, but we're
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  gonna talk about why on this episode.
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  So agitation is the strongest, best documented cause of fibers,
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  like, getting off the shirt and going into the water supply.
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  So fibers rub against other fibers, the fabric weave, and then drum itself,
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  which wears down fiber ends and works strands loose, similar to a rope
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  fraying at a point of repeated friction.
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  One study found that a mechanical laundry bar increased shedding by
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  10 to 60%, depending on the fabric.
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  And top-loading machines, which use a central agitator, have measured up to
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  seven times more fiber release than front loaders, which just tumble.
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  That I did not know.
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  Like, before I did this research, I had no clue that there was a
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  difference in terms of how good it is for the clothes, and what's shedding
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  by just going from a top-down into a front-load laundry machine, right?
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  Now, some things that, look at it, like a full load can shed less
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  per item than a half empty one.
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  So because more fabric on fabric contact is actually less damaging than items
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  tumbling loosely with excess water.
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  So if you think about it, a bigger load of laundry is much better at
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  losing less microfibers than it is if you just did like a half load.
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  So sometimes when we put in quick loads here and there, those aren't
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  as good as, to keep the fibers on, or in terms of microfiber shedding.
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  Now, hot water also matters, but the mechanism is a bit of a softer science.
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  The working explanation is that the heat loosens the bonds holding the fibers,
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  to the fabric surface, so making them more mobile and more likely to break
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  free under the same type of agitation.
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  So one study found nylon is more sensitive to temperatures while cotton
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  is more sensitive to wash duration.
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  So heat's effect isn't uniform across fabric types.
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  It's not like a settled fact, but it is like the leading, explanation.
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  Now detergent is the murkiest factor.
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  So studies actually disagree on whether soap alone increases or
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  decreases or does nothing to shedding.
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  What's more consistent is that detergent combined with wash
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  duration has the single strongest effect of any combination tested.
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  So meaning the soap's role may be less about attacking the fiber directly and
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  more about extending how long fabric sits in an abrasive wash environment.
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  So there are a, wide range of fiber counts across studies.
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  So like, you know, when I said at the beginning the few hundred
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  thousand to 18 million range, those obviously it's a wide ranging.
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  So it comes down to really depending on the way the tests are done.
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  So they're very inconsistent across tests, like it's not always the same method,
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  since researchers aren't always measuring the same particle size or load condition.
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  So all these different conditions, when you have three factors like the
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  soap, the agitation, the heat of the water, that's gonna cause different
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  types of, changes, especially when you have different types of fiber count.
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  So Should be standardized in certain ways, but it's difficult to do so
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  because clothes are made of different materials and different fiber counts, so
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  that makes it a little more difficult.
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  So I don't know if they have categories of them, but that would help a lot more.
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  Now, here's where we can make it better, right?
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  If you don't have a filter on your washing machine that actually
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  catches the fibers, the fibers flow straight into the wastewater,
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  headed for the treatment plant.
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  So that's what happens when you have a washer, right?
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  All that water that goes out of the wash when you do the rinse cycle,
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  before you do the rinse cycle, it goes right into your treatment water.
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  So it'll go to your treatment plant if you have that infrastructure
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  in your country or in your area.
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  And so, like the overall municipal wastewater infrastructure is
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  estimated to capture only about 40% of microfibers passing through it.
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  So if you don't have a filter, all your microfibers going in, it'll only catch
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  40%, it's an estimate, but only about 40%.
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  And it's also like, the captured fibers end up not just, like the
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  ones that are captured doesn't necessarily get out of the system.
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  They end up in biosolids, which often gets spread on farmland and as fertilizer.
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  So it's not removing the microplastics, right?
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  It's actually putting it into Like, on a field.
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  So it's going back into the system.
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  It's just relocating them, to be honest.
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  Which is weird.
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  It's a weird thing to think about.
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  It gets caught into these filters, and then there's all this, like, biosolids
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  that get clumped up within there, and then it's really hard to remove.
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  You're not gonna go through biosolids.
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  That's disgusting.
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  You're gonna put it back on the farmland for those who have
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  those types of programs, right?
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  It's pretty gross.
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  It's pretty gross.
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  Now, one university, I think it's the University of New Mexico, had a s-
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  a placenta study that broke results down by plastic type, and the biggest
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  single type was polyethylene at 54%.
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  That's not actually a textile fiber, but the polyethylene
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  is mostly, like, packaging.
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  So it's bags, bottles, film.
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  So that portion is most likely tied to, like, general plastics
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  exposure than laundry specific, but it's still a pretty big percentage.
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  Now, the part of the placenta study that, does connect to the microfibers,
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  directly is the nylon fraction.
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  Now, roughly 10%, is connected.
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  So this nylon is one of the textile plastics that Anya named
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  in our interview on Monday.
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  And so the study is real evidence, like microplastics broadly reach
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  unborn babies, you know, not just the fact that it's just on clothes.
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  it's actually reaching, people who are developing, like children
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  who are developing, fetuses who are developing, right?
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  In a 2023 study tested actual textile microplastic fibers, like
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  nylon 66 and polyester, like PET, and the same two plastics that Anya
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  described that are on our clothes.
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  So nylon fibers specifically were found to disrupt like, how airway cells
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  develop, so your esophagus and so forth.
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  and effect that researchers flagged as the most concerning for young
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  children with developing lungs and people with existing lung disease.
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  Now, some of the older data, in 1998 study examined 114 human lung tissue
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  samples, found inhaled fibers, including polyester and copper-type fibers, in 80%
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  it didn't pin, like, the source to textiles specifically, over the
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  other sources, but it's, like, some of the most, of the earliest direct
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  evidence that fiber-shaped plastics accumulate in human lungs at all.
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  So the fact is that we are seeing fibers in our lungs.
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  We are seeing it in our airways.
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  We know that it's disrupting, the way we develop as human beings and when
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  we're developing children, in the womb.
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  It's kinda showing that, like, microplastics are unusually
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  good at lodging in tissue once ingested or inhaled.
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  And they're so small.
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  They're smaller than a human hair.
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  You gotta remember that.
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  So it's very difficult.
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  Like, I mean, think about it, like when you have hair stuck in your mouth and you
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  just feel it, and you're always feeling it, and you're always feeling it, and
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  then you're like, "Well, hold on a second. That's not right." But then imagine you're
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  not even feeling it, and it goes in.
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  You can catch the hair for the most part, but then you may not feel it all
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  the time if it's smaller than a hair.
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  Now, one cool thing is that France did pass the world's first law requiring
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  microfiber filters on new washing machines, effective January 2025.
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  So it's just been implemented over the last year and maybe a little,
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  little over a year and a half.
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  Here's the catch, though.
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  Implementation has stalled because The technical
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  definitions needed to enforce it.
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  The filter mesh size, testing standards, they were never published.
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  So there's no measured result yet because the law hasn't even
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  really been operating in practice.
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  So unfortunately, even though it was implemented in 2025, it
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  hasn't actually gone-- like, been actually put in practice, and so
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  that makes it really difficult.
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  And the US hasn't done better.
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  California tried first that with the AB620-- 1628, passed the legislature
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  in 2023, and Governor Newsom vetoed it, citing cost concerns, and even
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  though Ocean Conservancy's own economic analysis put the added
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  cost at just $14 to $20 per machine.
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  The only real opposition came from the Appliance Manufacturers Trade
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  Group, which has since claimed its own testing shows filters catch only 25%
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  of microfibers, well below the 90% that we cited on Monday, that Anja cited.
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  now that's a dispute, right?
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  I don't know if I trust the Appliance Manufacturers Trade Group
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  over Ocean Conservancy, right?
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  And so I think that's an interesting kind of controversy here, where I
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  feel like the Ocean Conservancy, I have a little bit more trust in
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  them in terms of what's happening.
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  Now, there is a live federal bill right now in the US called the Fighting
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  Fibers Act of 2025, introduced by Representative Mike Levin in the House
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  and Senator Jeff Merkley in the Senate.
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  It's still sitting in committee, and no vote has happened yet, and would require
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  filters with a mesh size no greater than 100 micrometers on new machines
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  starting January 1st, 2030, with real EPA and Department of Energy enforcement.
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  Do I think this is gonna happen any time soon?
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  Probably not, because of the, Trump administration that's in power right now.
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  But we're headed in the right direction when it comes to this.
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  This is also the same Senator Merkley whose office, Anja worked for during
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  her congressional, science fellowship, in the story from her episode.
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  So that's kind of an interesting kinda tie here, because, Senator Merkley has
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  always been involved in this type of work.
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  So I think that's pretty cool.
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  Now, to be honest, like the fix is cheap.
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  Whether it's catching 25% or 90% of the fibers, it takes away the
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  dependence of treatment plants to pick up these microfibers, and even
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  then it could be in biosolids, right?
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  So it's cheap It's popular and it's technically proven in a lab.
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  but every attempt to actually require it in France or the US has either,
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  stalled or been vetoed so far.
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  This is where the, fight for the campaign is trying to win that
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  we're trying to go for here and trying to get all the fibers, right?
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  And you can check out the link to that campaign, Not Safe For
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  Wash campaign, in the show notes.
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  You can check that out right after this episode.
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  Now, there are solutions to this.
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  Anya named three types of solutions during the interview.
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  There's a retrofit filter, a mesh bag, And a Cora Ball.
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  So the Cora Ball is about $42.
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  It catches roughly 31% of microfibers per load.
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  very low maintenance, just pull the fibers off by hand, like, every once in a while.
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  The, Guppyfriend mesh washing bag is about $36.
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  Manufacturer claims 79 to 100% capture for whatever's washed
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  inside the bag specifically.
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  Moderate maintenance probably.
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  And then, uh, Planet Care retrofit filter, which is, 76 to $132, plus replacement
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  cartridges every 30 to 60 days.
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  Roughly 98% capture, highest maintenance, and cost over time.
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  And to be honest though, this is the real trade-off between
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  convenience and effectiveness, right?
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  there's no single answer.
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  These all depend on how much you wanna catch, and it's a
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  bit of a mix of an experiment.
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  And I would love to know what you have done.
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  Have you used a micro, fiber catch, device that could help reduce
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  your, input of microfibers on it?
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  I haven't had a chance to use one yet.
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  I'm gonna try and, use one and put it in the washer and see how that works,
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  and see what the maintenance is.
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  but I think it's kind of interesting.
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  If you have the ability to do this, and you can kinda prove that it works, then
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  maybe other people will start using it as well, and eventually I feel like this
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  will be regulated in where we're gonna have microfiber filters on all of these.
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  So the technology exists.
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  It is affordable for most people, and the public does support it, but the
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  policy keeps stalling out everywhere it's tried, so from France's unenforced
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  law to California's veto to a federal bill, that is still sitting in committee.
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  But we're not gonna just stop here about this.
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  I'm gonna give you more information for the Not Safe
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  for Wash in tomorrow's episode.
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  We're gonna go inside Ocean Conservancy's actual campaign, including the AHM capture
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  rate dispute and where things stand right now for getting this passed for real.
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  So we're gonna talk all about that in tomorrow's episode, so don't you miss out.
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  Hit that follow button so you don't miss it.
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  And of course, thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.