#microplastics filter

A small retrofit device – now sold through some of the major washing machine brands – could keep millions of tonnes of plastic fibres out of rivers and oceans each year. Euronews Earth spoke with Adam Root, CEO of Matter, to learn more about the innovation that made the company a finalist for the EarthShot Prize in 2025. Synthetic fabrics release invisible pollution Around 60 per cent of all fabric produced today is synthetic – made, in effect, from plastic. Each time a garment is washed, the machine wears away the fibres, releasing tiny fragments too small for existing filters to catch. "Think of your washing machine – if you rub your hand on the inside, it's kind of like a cheese grater," Root tells Euronews Earth. "Think of it abrading slowly all of these pieces of plastic and turning them into tiny little pieces that go down into our water." The scale of the problem is significant. Matter's research puts the figure at roughly a gram of microplastics released per wash. In the UK alone – with around 24 million homes, most with a washing machine – that amounts to an estimated 16 tonnes entering the water supply every day. Across Europe, with over 100 million households, the numbers climb further still. Once in waterways, the particles do not simply dilute. Root describes microplastics as acting like a pill, carrying chemical pollutants into the organisms that absorb them. "This material is adding into organisms like phytoplankton and zooplankton," he says. "These guys are the foundation for life on Earth. They sequester more carbon than all the plants and trees on Earth. They produce a majority of the world's oxygen."