A Laundry Machine Caused a Crisis? How researchers are Responding

If asked about plastic pollution, the typical person imagines Dasani bottles circumnavigating the Earth via ocean currents, plastic bags drifting through the wind, or fast food chains subscribing to those horrible plastic utensil bags that come with a salt and pepper packet. We are living in an era of plastic addiction and—dare I say—dependence.

Yet, beneath the generic plastic is taking over our planet! headline lurks a more sinister issue unbeknownst to the general public and sparsely researched by scientists. When prompted about plastic pollution, the typical person doesn’t think about the polyester fibers that naturally detach from clothing—that meander into our water supply after every laundry cycle. These synthetics are categorized as “microplastics,” which are officially recognized as plastics smaller than 0.2 inches in diameter—most being tiny enough to elude water treatment facilities and seep into our oceans and water supplies. 

What’s terrifying is that an average person intakes five grams of microplastics every week—or approximately the weight of a credit card. Plastic particles have been discovered in most commercial seafood and tap and bottled water (commodities affected by microplastic-polluted waterways). And even though microplastics are a relatively new field of study, only recently breaching the periphery of science’s eye, researchers have found that microplastics can wander into the bloodstream. This potentially contributes to clogged arteries in otherwise healthy individuals and fetal defects in pregnant women.

To cut this major source of microplastic pollution off at the source, many companies have developed microfiber filters that can be installed in conjunction with washing machines. However, these filters are typically bulky, expensive, and difficult to install, rendering them futile when faced against the millions of washing machines lacking filters. In fact, a prototype developed by scientists at Columbia University takes up as much space as a second laundry machine, and Samsung’s “Less Microfiber” costs 300 dollars, not to mention that it’s only compatible with Samsung washing machines.

Working around these concerns, several students at the University of Pennsylvania have developed “Baleena,” a tennis ball sized microplastic filter that can be tossed into the laundry machine with the load. Baleena’s spherical design features a protective, porous outer layer that allows for water diffusion and a delicate inner filter modeled after a sea sponge. An immense amount of pores and cavities lends the sea sponge-like material its effectiveness at trapping tiny and sometimes nano-sized fibers.

Although Baleena is still in the research and development phase, its easy-to-use nature pioneers a more accessible approach to combating laundry-produced microplastics.