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Inside Ocean Conservancy's Fight to Make Washing Machine Filters the Law · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Right now, in houses all over the world,
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  washing machines are running.
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  Every single cycle releases thousands of plastic fibers too small to see,
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  headed straight into rivers oceans,
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  and eventually back to us. now the fix already exists.
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  And this is a story about whether anyone can actually force that fix into law.
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  A fight that's already been fought once,
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  lost, and is still being fought again.
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  Right now, as we speak, we're gonna be talking about that on today's episode
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  of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. If you're new here and you like this type
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  of information on how you can protect the ocean better,
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  I I highly suggest to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app.
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  Tell your friends, tell your family members,
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  people who want to know how they can stop plastic fibers from getting into
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  and microfibers from getting into our oceans.
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  Now, these microfibers come
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  Come off synthetic clothing every time it's washed,
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  right? And there's a filter for it to catch those microfibers.
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  Similar in concept to a dryer's lint trap,
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  like how you have to take that out every once in a while,
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  right? All the lint because you don't want to go on.
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  I always worry that's gonna go on catch on fire.
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  And then it can catch most of it before it even leaves your house.
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  Now getting that filter built into washing machines as a standard equipment
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  is the real challenge, just like you would for a lint,
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  The lint catcher.
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  The same way seat belts eventually became standard in cars as well.
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  So right now it's required nowhere in the world in any meaningful enforced way.
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  And if you s if you listen to any of the other podcasts where we talked about this,
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  you know that France tried to implement it,
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  but it hasn't really been implemented.
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  We're gonna talk about the government of California and why
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  the governor actually said no and vetoed the law.
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  Now Ocean Conservancy's campaign,
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  not safe for wash, is built as a deliberate strategy.
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  Around one fact. The technology already works.
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  It's there. It exists. There's multiple different types of filters that you can get.
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  And the campaign's job is turning public opinion into political pressure
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  for one specific ask, requiring the filter on new machines that are built
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  and that you could buy. So you don't have to go out and buy the filter.
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  It's already there.
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  A poll Ocean Conservancy ran in May 2026 of just over a thousand Americans found
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  concern about microplastics up 32% since 2023.
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  Nearly nine in ten people concerned,
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  and 81% in favor of requiring filters on new washing machines.
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  So like
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  This is something that's interesting because we,
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  you know, they're out of the people who follow Ocean Conservancy and
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  who are doing this poll, their concern.
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  So the action of ~ this campaign is act is is getting to the people.
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  The awareness campaign is working.
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  People are understanding that microfibers are bad.
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  People are understanding that we need to do something about it.
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  Now, you can go out right now and you can buy filters for your
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  wa your washing machine and you can install it on.
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  I don't know how difficult I don't have one myself.
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  I don't know how difficult it is to put one on.
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  Right, but you can go out and buy one.
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  So you can do this on your own right now if you want.
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  But the fight to convince like people like this is a prize a real problem
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  has already been won already. We don't have to worry about that.
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  The real obstacle sits somewhere else entirely.
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  The AHAM AHAM ~ is short for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.
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  The trade group representing the companies that actually manufacture washing
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  machines is the real opponent of this story.
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  Their case comes from testing with NSF International,
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  a company that I guess that does test pro test products on two specific products.
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  Now they came out with the result.
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  They're saying, hey, look, there's only this these filters only catch like 25%.
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  They're not actually doing that great a job.
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  Ocean Conservancy says that it catches up to 90% in some cases of these microfiber.
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  That's a that's a real difference here.
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  Now, the the test that they did that the AHAM did with I'm gonna call them Aham.
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  did with ~ NSF International, they did look like two specific products.
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  So one was the Filtral 160,
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  a washing machine microfiber filter with a 20 micron mesh.
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  And the other was a Hayward pool filter canister fitted with pool filter socks,
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  a product built for swimming pools,
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  tested here as a stand-in for a laundry filter.
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  So they're not really testing the variety of filters,
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  they're testing one.
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  actual washing machine microfiber filter and another one which is
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  a pool filter which probably won't work now the results in their own words
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  you know the filters capture about at most 26% of the material and only
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  a portion of that material that they that they caught would actually
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  be microfibers the number represents like the total material caught without
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  confirming how much of it was actually microfibers maybe you think it's less maybe
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  we don't I don't know
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  Now, as I mentioned, Ocean Conservancy's number is 90%.
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  and and has its own little gap in to be in to be all transparent from
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  the research that I found. I don't know where they pulled the 90% from.
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  I don't know if it's a specific study.
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  I could not find it, but I did find a bunch of feather ~ testing,
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  And and so independent testing outside either organization tells a clear story.
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  One independent study found that Lint L-U-V-R,
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  lover, Lint lover, ~ external filter captures
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  87% of fibers on average. Planet Care claims up to 98%.
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  And Guppy's Friends mesh bag claims 79 to 86%.
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  The Corobal reduces shedding by roughly 26 to 31%.
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  I think that goes into the wash as you as you wash your clothes.
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  An independent government review out of Connecticut found existing washing machine
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  filters remove 80 to 89% of microfibers,
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  like overall.
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  So although the neither organization's numbers are like,
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  you know, within that, those range that they talk about,
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  Ocean Conservancy's number of 90%,
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  it sits pretty comfortably inside that range of that independent product testing,
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  especially when they tested a bunch of different products and not pool,
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  ~ pool filter, right? so I think that that helps when it when it looks
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  at the legitimacy of that 90%.
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  We know these microfibers will catch microfiber,
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  like the microfiber filters will catch microfibers,
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  right?
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  Now, one part of the appliance industry's case does hold up though.
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  A separate filter effectiveness study avoided using detergent during
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  t ~ testing specifically because of concerns it would cause clogging.
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  In yesterday's show I mentioned that the clogging of it it
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  can these microfibers when they go in water treatment plants,
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  they can often get like kind of caught up with the biosolids.
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  And they were worried about this happening there.
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  Now, I don't know if there's testing that has it with and without ~ detergent,
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  but this is something that is is some
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  that is, I guess, a concern when they look at it.
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  But when you're washing your clothes,
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  you gotta wash it with detergent.
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  So that actually matters in in this respect.
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  So I so I don't really know what the number was off that study,
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  but it did say that there was concern with the detergent clogging
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  up ~ the microfibers within this.
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  But you would think that detergent would just be solvent within the the washer.
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  I don't know. I'm not I I I'm not an engineer in that kind of way,
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  but you know you'd think that's that would be common sense.
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  But we'll see. now
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  There's also a life cycle argument,
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  right? It claims it takes roughly 13 years,
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  longer than a washing machine's working life these days,
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  for a filter to capture as much plastic as it took to manufacture it.
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  And they warn about clogging, flooding risks,
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  and burden on people with disabilities who'd have to maintain these filters.
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  So these are different sort of concerns that go around.
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  I I haven't read up on the filters if they if they address those concerns.
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  but there's obviously some controversy here.
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  There's two different organizations with very different numbers.
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  The Ocean Conservancy kind of seems right with those numbers,
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  but there's also some other things that you have to look out for.
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  Even there was also like a commercial washing machine ~ manufacturer
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  or or business owner who was worried about it like with a coin ~ washing machines.
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  They said they use a different type of ~ of washer where the you can't add a filter,
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  it's a drain.
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  That goes down the bottom. So they wouldn't be able to use it
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  in those commercial ones. But this campaign that the Ocean Conservancy is running,
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  not safe for wash, is for residential and not commercial.
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  That could be addressed at another time,
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  I guess. Now let's talk. So we talk about,
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  you know, Ocean Conservancy wants this bill passed and they want they want
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  to have government make sure that it's legislated that these manufacturers have
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  to put these filters on, these microfilters on,
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  right? So how do we get this passed?
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  Has it been
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  tried?
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  Where is it all coming from? California passed a bill through
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  its state legislature in 2023 And it reached the governor's desk.
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  Now the governor Newsom vetoed it,
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  citing rising costs to consumers,
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  but his actual veto letter never named a number like or a study or source.
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  He simply just asserted that the concern and called for more research first.
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  Now, Ocean Conservancy's own economic analysis put the costs of a built-in filter
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  at about $14 to $20 per machine.
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  And a retrofit filter installed after the fact runs closer to about $100 to $300.
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  A gap that comes down to comparing like the factory installed part against
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  the aftermarket add-on. So if these are legislated to be built
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  as these washing machines are.
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  being built, then you would think it would be the cheaper version.
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  Of course, the consumer would probably take the cost,
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  but it would be interesting to see what would happen.
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  So Newsom's own admission administration had previously endorsed
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  This exact filter approach in California's own statewide microplastic strategy,
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  which makes this veto read as a reversal of the administration's own prior position.
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  It's it's kind of funny, right?
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  Like you see that the California said,
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  yeah, we're gonna put this in our strategy,
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  and then all of a sudden they come in and and they don't put it in.
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  So you wonder if if maybe it's just Governor Newsom just didn't look
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  at this strategy or his advisors didn't tell him to but about this strategy
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  and they forgot,
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  They were coming out of COVID and they're worried about costs for everybody.
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  Who knows what they were worried about?
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  I would imagine it would have taken a while before these microfilters would
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  be put on and assembled and and put together and and approved,
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  but that's where we are ~ with with the government of of of California.
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  Now, as I mentioned yesterday,
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  France became the first country in the world to pass this law and it's
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  and it's still unenforced because the technical rules needed to make
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  the law were never really finished.
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  And the Aham points to both California and France as evidence that
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  the policy doesn't work. The bills both passed in the legislature,
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  people want them. This is not a matter of
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  People don't want them, but it's just a matter of like it's
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  not going through because of specific individuals.
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  So we wonder what's happening.
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  Now, around the US, there are five states that are actually putting bills through
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  or have bills through or have tried to put bills through.
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  So New York and Illinois ~ both have real bills moving right now.
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  New York's comes from Assemblywoman Anna Kills.
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  Kills, I think is how you pronounce it.
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  And Illinois has ~ companion bills in both its house and Senate.
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  ~ Oregon
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  Already tried once, a two twenty twenty-five bill died in committee
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  and a renewed push in twenty twenty six doesn't have enough support yet to move it.
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  New Jersey and Pennsylvania both have bills reported as in progress,
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  But those are not necessarily being put through with full confidence.
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  And obviously, California, we already know that the Newsom vetoed it.
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  And then a federal bill called the Fighting Fibers Act is sitting
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  in a Senate committee room right now,
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  waiting on its second attempt after an earlier version died
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  in the previous Congress. So, you know,
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  there's still a lot to go through.
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  I don't know if there's anything environmental that's gonna happen with this federal
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  administration.
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  I assume that there's more in the states that we could like in the in
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  the US states that can happen.
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  Same with provinces. Maybe even in in Canada,
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  I would like to see a bill go through.
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  I don't know if I don't think it's required here in Canada.
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  So it's always good to know. ~ but to be honest,
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  nobody know really knows how this campaign is gonna end.
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  Ocean Conservancy doesn't give up.
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  They are always great at doing that.
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  They are going to fight this and they are going to ensure that all
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  ~ concerns are addressed and they can be.
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  properly laid out so that more and more people can take part in this campaign
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  and talk to your local representative,
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  your state, your federal, and your local representative,
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  ~ whether you're in the states,
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  whether you're in Canada, wherever you're listening to this,
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  this is like an important part.
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  This can really help reduce ~ microfiber f f microfibers from being released into
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  the water system and of course back into us by up to ninety percent.
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  That's huge. That's a huge, huge thing.
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  So
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  that's the episode for today. if you want to find out more,
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  you can go to oceanconservancy.org slash NSFW
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  or contact your representatives,
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  find out what's moving in your own state.
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  and of course, ~ I think that's that's always fun.
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  And and the same playbook ~ works locally wherever you are,
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  since the exact fight is playing out in other countries too.
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  So it doesn't matter where you are.
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  Now next episode.
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  We are going to talk about who actually pays for all this and
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  the economics behind laws like the California's SP 54 and who foots
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  the bill for cleaning up plastic pollution today.
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  That's on tomorrow's episode. So don't miss out.
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  Hit that follow button. And thank you so much for joining me.
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  If you want to get in contact,
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  if you have questions or concerns,
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  let me know. I am available. Just DM me.
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  My links to my socials are down below.
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  LinkedIn is probably the best way these days to get on.
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  I'm always on it. ~ or or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook,
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  whichever one you want.
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  But of course, don't forget to tune in tomorrow.
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  Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect
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  the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host,
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  Angela Lewin. Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.