Every load of laundry releases tiny plastic fibers into wastewater. Synthetic fabrics, which make up about 60% of global textile production, shed microplastics during washing—particles too small for standard filters to catch. Now, the European Union is preparing to require all new washing machines to include microplastic filters, a move that could sharply reduce the estimated 16 tonnes of plastic entering UK waters daily and far more across the continent's 100 million households.
A Bristol-based startup called Matter has developed a retrofit device that connects to the back of existing machines, capturing up to 97% of particles as small as 10 microns—roughly one-sixth the width of a human hair. The company, a finalist for the 2025 Earthshot Prize, is already selling in 11 countries and plans to expand to 22 by year's end, with the goal of covering the entire EU market.
How the Filter Works
Standard washing machine filters have holes around five millimeters—designed to stop coins and buttons, not microplastics. Matter's device, which can be installed in under ten minutes, uses a finer mesh to trap fibers. A small indicator light signals when the filter needs emptying, typically once a month. "It shouldn't change the way that you wash your clothes or use things in your life," says Adam Root, Matter's CEO.
Root compares the washing machine's action to a cheese grater: "Think of it abrading slowly all of these pieces of plastic and turning them into tiny little pieces that go down into our water." Once in waterways, microplastics act like "a pill," carrying chemical pollutants into organisms like phytoplankton and zooplankton, which form the foundation of marine food webs and produce most of the world's oxygen.
For now, collected material can go to sealed landfills under EU legislation from the 1990s. But Matter is pushing for a circular solution through its Love Your Lint program, which collects used filters and trials ways to turn the fibers back into new materials. "We can technically prove that we can do that, but at the minute it's not a commercial scale yet," Root says. The company is campaigning for kerbside textile recycling across Europe.
The broader scientific understanding of microplastics' risks remains incomplete, as European Pulse has reported. But the scale of the problem is clear: Matter's research estimates roughly a gram of microplastics per wash, and with over 100 million households in Europe, the cumulative impact is enormous.
Root acknowledges the challenge of scaling up. "I could sell a couple of thousand units in the world, but it's not going to change the millions of homes that we need to get to," he says. Partnerships with major washing machine brands were key, though "small business operating with big business is always challenging—it requires a lot of tenacity." Once the technology was proven, the response exceeded expectations.
The Earthshot Prize nomination, which reached an audience of 34 million at last year's ceremony in Rio de Janeiro, accelerated conversations with potential partners. "You couldn't dream of getting that kind of visibility," Root says. The EU's forthcoming legislation, which will require microplastic filters in all new machines, could further expand the market for solutions like Matter's.
"If we solve the micro materials, we solve the macro problems," Root says. For European households, the change may soon be as routine as sorting recycling.
