Turkish home appliances giant Arçelik claims its technology can prevent more than 90 per cent of clothing microfibers from polluting water resources
Washing machines designed to prevent millions of microplastic fibres shed by clothing from polluting oceans and waterways are gearing up to hit the market next year, thanks to a new technology that global white goods giant Arçelik claims is a world-first.
The Turkish home appliances giant, which owns major household brands such as Beko and Grundig, has developed a microfibre filtration system for integration into a new line of its washing machines. It claims the innovation can capture more than 90 per cent of microplastic fibres shed during a wash cycle.
The technology, which is set to go on sale next year, is aimed at combating the growing amount of tiny plastic particles swimming in the world's rivers, lakes, and oceans which have been found to cause adverse physical and chemical impacts in the aquatic animals which consume them.
Recent studies have found these microplastics almost everywhere, from groundwater in the US, to the Yangtze river in China, and along the coast of Spain. Analysis in the UK found microplastic pollution in all 10 lakes, rivers, and reservoirs sampled by researchers. In turn, these microplastic particles can enter the human food chain through fish and drinking water, the long-term health impacts of which remain largely unknown.
Some governments have moved to tackle microplastic pollution, with bans on microbeads used in some cleaning products. But hundreds of thousands of microplastic fibres have also been found to shed from garments made from synthetic materials during a single wash, which are then carried into public water systems and eventually oceans and rivers as a result of water discharged from washing machines.
In an exclusive interview with BusinessGreen, Arçelik CEO Hakan Bulgurlu explained the firm was working to tackle the problem and that its new filtration system was capable of capturing more than 90 per cent of the microfibers released in each wash, thereby reducing the number of tiny plastic pieces from leaking into water resources.
"The fabric and garment industry have a huge problem," he acknowledged. "As fast fashion can mean buying something and getting rid of it three days' later, the quality of yarn has gone down, and much of that yarn is synthetic, oil-based and essentially plastic. In each wash cycle plastic parts detach from the clothing, and there is no filtering mechanisms throughout any municipal systems. It goes into the ocean, so there's not a single fish in the ocean that isn't contaminated. Now when we eat fish, we contaminate ourselves. But we're in a position where we can do something about it."
Located in the detergent drawer of the washing machine, the filtration box is 100 per cent recyclable and filters the water before discharge into the local water pipe system, according to the firm.
Then, after reaching the end of its usable life, the filter can then be detached and sent back to Arçelik, which recycles the system into new filters while sustainably disposing of the captured microplastics, Bulgurlu explained.
"You can't reuse it [the filter], because we don't want consumers washing them in the sink - it defeats the purpose," said Bulgurlu. "They send the filter back to us, we send the new one to the consumer, and the old one gets recycled into new filters. So we almost completely stop all the fibres from going into the water system."
He said he had a "strong conviction" the filtration system would prove popular among consumers. "Once we do this, I think it will become regulation quickly," he added.