Your Washing Machine Sheds Up to 18 Million Microfibers a Load

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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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00:12:40,189 --> 00:12:41,979
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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00:12:47,726 --> 00:12:54,246
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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00:12:57,516 --> 00:12:59,316
Hit that follow button
so you don't miss it.

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00:12:59,556 --> 00:13:02,336
And of course, thank you so much for
joining me on today's episode of the

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00:13:02,336 --> 00:13:03,706
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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00:13:05,956 --> 00:13:08,226
We'll talk to you next time,
and happy conservation.