Vive la France21 Feb 2020 12:54
FRANCE GETS SERIOUS ON MIROFIBRE POLLUTION: French politician, Brune Poirson, has met washing machine manufacturers to discuss new anti-waste laws aimed at combating plastic pollution at sea.
The laws include measures to obligatorily equip the 2.7 million washing machines sold in France each year with microparticle filters.
The aim is to reduce the amount of microfibres entering the country’s waterways during the laundering process.
Hundreds of thousands of microfibres per load are shed during normal laundering.
These tiny particles can now be found everywhere in the environment, especially at the bottom of the oceans.
UK business, Xeros, wants similar laws to be adopted in the UK - and says the technology is there to make this happen.
Christian Cullinane, managing director of consumer brands at Xeros Technologies told Apparel Insider: “Every time we switch on our washing machines, we are inadvertently putting hundreds of thousands of tiny plastic particles into our rivers and oceans. Making effective microplastic filtration standard technology in all new machines is the only way to bring about a meaningful reduction in this kind of plastic pollution.”