In the UK the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Microplastics recently released a report demanding Parliament to pass legislation mandating microfibre filtration in all domestic and commercial washing machines by 2025.
The APPG report falls back on work done by the National Federation of Women’s Institutes which has campaigned on the issue of microfibre pollution. A NFWI report in 2018 showed that UK households were doing around 68 million loads of laundry every week, releasing more than 9 trillion microfibres. As well as requesting microfibre filtration in all domestic and commercial washing machines by 2025, the APPG report urgently asks for:
- A Government-led awareness campaign to promote consumer behaviour change
- A designated Minister for Plastics Pollution
- An Extended Producer Responsibility Scheme for textiles by 2023
Together with policy experts, leading academics and environmental NGOs, Xeros Technologies PLC also attended the launch of the report. Mark Nichols – company CEO – stated that effective microfibre filtration in washing machines is the quickest and most cost-effective way to diminish microplastic from laundry into sea environments. In his opinion by this call for legislation, the APPG is taking an important step towards an active battle against sea pollution by microfibres.