The fourth edition of our Plastic Free July comes with 4 new questions and answers about (micro)plastics that were sent to us by our community via social media and email.
Until 10th July we have been asking our community to send us questions about microplastics and plastic in general. And until end of July we will publish answers to 20 of the most interesting questions to raise awareness about plastic pollution, educate on ways to fight it and even provide some insight into how plastic transformed the world as we know it, covering the good and the bad aspects of plastic.
In the beginning of this year, a study was published by Drs. Wei Min and Beizhan Yan of Columbia University, researching amounts of microplastics in three main brands of bottled water.
The amount of microplastics found in bottled water was immense - on average, a liter of bottled water contains 240 thousand pieces of plastic, 90% of them nanoplastics. This amount is 10 to 100 times more plastic than in previous studies, which have focused on larger particles.
Water contained all seven types of plastic. The most common was polyamide, which is used to help filter and purify water (oh the irony, right?) with PET (polyethilene) coming in second. The latter was expected, as PET is used to make bottles in which water is packed. But the researchers also found millions of additional particles that did not match any of the seven categories of plastic. It is not clear, if these are nanoplastics or some other substances.
The collected fibers don’t go to the trash or are flushed down the drain. That would pretty much make filtering nonsense, right? So here’s what happens ...
The used filter cartridges are returned to us (shipping is free) where we remove the microfibers along with the filtering medium. The we clean the cartridge and it goes back to users.
As for recycling of the fibers - we have confirmed uses for upcycling the fibers (reinforcement of concrete weights in washing machines and chemical recycling by breaking down the fibers into monomers) and we also have several pilots, the most exciting is surely a range of furniture, made from microfibers (we connected with a local manufacturer for that).
Now as for shipping the cartridges - used cartridges are sent back to us in bulk (usually 12 used cartridges at once) so that means appr. one shipment every 1,5 years. With a growing number of users, we will also be able to set up local return&reuse centers to make it all more efficient and to avoid shipments.
Funny story, but an integrated filter for washing machines was our first ever product (that we keep developing). We introduced this solution to all major washing machine manufacturers back in 2017 but sadly there was no interest by them to use the filter in their washing machines. Actually, an executive from one of the companies told our CEO that if we want to save the oceans, we should adopt a dolphin. 🤦♂️
It’s a sad fact that manufacturers of washing machines do not want to add an extra part in their machines, as this increases the cost of the end product. So until there is regulation in place that forces them to add a filter to their washing machines, an integrated filter is most likely not going to happen. Luckily regulators (that’s politicians) are slowly making progress in making filters mandatory. France, for instance, made filters mandatory in all new washing machines from 2025 on (and PlanetCare was used as proof that it can be done when France was pushing for this regulation).
Now we’re yet to see all this become a reality, but we surely hope that this will soon become a reality.
Yes. It’s a sad fact, but microplastics have now been found in some crazy places on Earth.
Microplastics have been found in ice in the Antarctic, in marine organisms on the bottom of the Marianna trench (that’s the deepest place in the oceans), and on the highest peaks of the world (yup, Everest included).