2.7 million washing machines sold in France each year will have to be equipped with microparticle filters by 2025. In each cycle, up to 700,000 microscopic fibers are released into the environment.
92% of microfibers collected offshore in six ocean basins of the world come mainly from cotton and wool. Natural fibers generate inflammation of the digestive walls of these filter-feeding organisms and affect their immune system more significantly than synthetic fibers. The persistence period of 100% natural fibers in the marine environment is a few weeks or months.