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Your Laundry Wastewater is Killing the Ocean. Here's How to Stop It

Your washing machine sends trillions of microfibers into the sea. Cora Ball to the rescue

By Rain Noe - April 20, 2017

in Social Impact | Product Design

All of us wear laundered clothes, yet few of us think about where the dirty water coming out of the washing machine goes. But Rachel Miller is a cofounder of the nonprofit Rozalia Project, which deals with marine waste on America's East Coast, and she knows exactly where it goes: Into the ocean.

This presents a major textiles-based pollution problem. "We are eating our fleece," Miller writes. "Every time we do laundry, our clothes shed tiny microfibers (including plastic), which go down the drains of our washing machines, through wastewater treatment facilities and into our waterways.

The single biggest pollution problem facing our ocean is microfiber: trillions of pieces of tiny fibers flowing into the ocean – every time we use our washing machines. Our clothing is breaking up, sending this microfiber (made of plastic and chemical-covered non-plastics) out with the drain water – just one fleece jacket could shed up to 250,000 pieces per garment per wash [source]. New York City, alone, could have 6.8 billion microfibers flowing into its harbor every day. We are all contributing to this problem.

To combat this, the Rozalia Project designed a simple solution: The coral-inspired Cora Ball.

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The Cora Ball is made entirely from recycled plastic (which is why the color combinations may seem odd; the sourcing varies). We're pleased to see it's been nearly 3,000% funded at press time, with $274,965 in pledges on a measly $10,000 goal. If you want one of your own, you'd better hurry—there's just five days left to pledge.

I just pledged myself, as I own two dogs and have been seeking a way to get their hair out of my laundry batches. Side benefit to saving the ocean.

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Nathan D.

7 years ago

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I'm a little fuzzy (see what I did there) on how the fibers make it to the ocean. It's pretty illegal in most municipalities with functional sewage systems to send that water out into a storm drain. Are the treatment plants dumping it during processing or are there really that many deadbeat landlords who don't feel like getting their plumbing up to code?

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Paul Mcconnell

7 years ago

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So this is made from recycled plastic which will break down over time releasing micro beads of plastic back into the ocean which the fish will eat. In turn those micro beads will end up back in our food.
Nice idea but flawed. If we are to stop the waters being polluted then we need better filtration at water cleaning plants.As well as chemical free cleaners.

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- Noodle Time
  
  Paul Mcconnell
  
  7 years ago
  
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  chemical free cleaners? oxymorons dont clean well.
  
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  - Paul Mcconnell
    
    Noodle Time
    
    7 years ago
    
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    That's where research comes in. There is good research going into how micro bubbles can be used to clean items. There are also things to be learned from nature about cleaning that we haven't yet discovered.
    People are too quick to dismiss the future as if it won't happen.
    
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Noodle Time

7 years ago

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i bet it smells like that detergent-free laundry ball from the 90's... it too was on a mission to 'save humanity' //// turns out you really do need detergent to get clothes clean.

also good to know it isnt the chemicals killing the ocean... its the dolce and gabanna micro fibers...

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