Microplastics in the ocean: government to impose filters on washing machines

Place clothes in the drum and start its usual program. This harmless gesture, shared by thousands of French people every week, is nevertheless responsible for an ecological disaster. The synthetic microfibers spit out by our washing machines are found thousands of kilometers away, in the ocean floor. To stop this invisible marine pollution, the government announces to the Parisian-Today in France that it will impose from January 1, 2025 microparticle filters on new washing machines. A world first.

If the images of the seventh continent - of plastic - are in everyone's mind, pollution with microparticles of plastic is much more devious. The culprits are, however, well identified: our clothes, made up more and more of synthetic fibers, polyester, acrylic or even elastane, released with each wash. The figures vary from one study to another and from one material to another, but according to scientists, there are hundreds of thousands, even millions, of microfibers that go into the evacuation circuit, including one part up to the sea.

Up to 700,000 t of rejected microfibers

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that between 15 and 31% of the 9.5 million tonnes of plastic washed up at sea are microplastics. In 2015, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that textile waste alone represents 500,000 t per year. A pollution of which researchers found the trace even in the entrails of mini-crustaceans living at nearly 11 km deep.

Too small to be filtered by treatment plants, the microparticles could well be stopped in their mad rush as soon as they are machine washed. In particular by means of a filter placed directly on the device. This provision, a measure that went unnoticed in the anti-waste law adopted definitively by parliament on January 30, will impose on manufacturers this system on the 2.7 million machines sold each year in France.

If the government leaves until the end of 2024, it is because much remains to be done. "We have introduced a deadline which corresponds to the time of technological research, to allow us to find the innovation that will be suitable and to easily eliminate these microplastics", we are assured from the side of the ministry, which has scheduled a meeting this Monday with the sector specialists, carriers of "technological solutions" and NGOs, in order "to establish a roadmap with the industrialists in the sector".

Reluctant manufacturers

To find the solution, the executive could well be inspired by Slovenia, where a start-up has already developed a filter to install on its machine, at the buyer's expense. “The idea could be to integrate this filter into the production chain, or have a capsule system that agglomerates the microfibers that the user could then discard. It should not create an additional cost for the consumer to purchase, ”we explain to the government.

But the hardest part will not necessarily be played in the technological field. Despite the introduction of a bonus for manufacturers who reach the target before 2025, some manufacturers remain reluctant and point to the responsibility of manufacturers of textiles and "fast fashion", low-cost fashion which leads to overconsumption.

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Invited to the Ministry of Ecological Transition on Monday, Gifam (Grouping of brands of home appliances), which brings together fifty companies, international groups and SMEs in the sector, awaits responses. "Although we understand and support the objective pursued by this measure to reduce plastic pollution of the oceans, such a provision raises many technical, economic and usage questions, both for consumers and for industrialists", writes Gifam in a declaration sent to the "Parisian".

And until 2025?

Before the arrival on the market of machines equipped with filters, a few tips can reduce pollution with microplastics. First of all by reducing the pace of our machines. According to a study, each household uses an average of five times a week its washing machine. Limiting the water temperature to 30 ° C is also recommended.

For the Dutch foundation Plastic Soup, also invited this Monday to the ministry, it is necessary to privilege the liquid detergent, against the detergent in powder which "creates an effect scrub" and to do without the washing machine. Turning to natural textiles, on the other hand, is a false good idea, as the cultivation of cotton is greedy in water and pesticides. Last advice, shouted in chorus by all environmental associations: reduce our purchases of clothing.