Inside Ocean Conservancy's Fight to Make Washing Machine Filters the Law

0:00 Right now, in houses all over the world, washing machines are running. Every single cycle releases thousands of plastic fibers too small to see, headed straight into rivers oceans, and eventually back to us. now the fix already exists. And this is a story about whether anyone can actually force that fix into law. A fight that's already been fought once, lost, and is still being fought again. Right now, as we speak, we're gonna be talking about that on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin. If you're new here and you like this type of information on how you can protect the ocean better, I I highly suggest to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app.

0:45 Tell your friends, tell your family members, people who want to know how they can stop plastic fibers from getting into and microfibers from getting into our oceans. Now, these microfibers come Come off synthetic clothing every time it's washed, right? And there's a filter for it to catch those microfibers. Similar in concept to a dryer's lint trap, like how you have to take that out every once in a while, right? All the lint because you don't want to go on. I always worry that's gonna go on catch on fire. And then it can catch most of it before it even leaves your house. Now getting that filter built into washing machines as a standard equipment is the real challenge, just like you would for a lint, The lint catcher.

1:25 The same way seat belts eventually became standard in cars as well. So right now it's required nowhere in the world in any meaningful enforced way. And if you s if you listen to any of the other podcasts where we talked about this, you know that France tried to implement it, but it hasn't really been implemented. We're gonna talk about the government of California and why the governor actually said no and vetoed the law. Now Ocean Conservancy's campaign, not safe for wash, is built as a deliberate strategy. Around one fact. The technology already works. It's there. It exists. There's multiple different types of filters that you can get. And the campaign's job is turning public opinion into political pressure for one specific ask, requiring the filter on new machines that are built and that you could buy. So you don't have to go out and buy the filter.

2:14 It's already there. A poll Ocean Conservancy ran in May 2026 of just over a thousand Americans found concern about microplastics up 32% since 2023. Nearly nine in ten people concerned, and 81% in favor of requiring filters on new washing machines. So like This is something that's interesting because we, you know, they're out of the people who follow Ocean Conservancy and who are doing this poll, their concern. So the action of ~ this campaign is act is is getting to the people. The awareness campaign is working. People are understanding that microfibers are bad. People are understanding that we need to do something about it. Now, you can go out right now and you can buy filters for your wa your washing machine and you can install it on.

2:58 I don't know how difficult I don't have one myself. I don't know how difficult it is to put one on. Right, but you can go out and buy one. So you can do this on your own right now if you want. But the fight to convince like people like this is a prize a real problem has already been won already. We don't have to worry about that. The real obstacle sits somewhere else entirely. The AHAM AHAM ~ is short for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. The trade group representing the companies that actually manufacture washing machines is the real opponent of this story. Their case comes from testing with NSF International, a company that I guess that does test pro test products on two specific products.

3:40 Now they came out with the result. They're saying, hey, look, there's only this these filters only catch like 25%. They're not actually doing that great a job. Ocean Conservancy says that it catches up to 90% in some cases of these microfiber. That's a that's a real difference here. Now, the the test that they did that the AHAM did with I'm gonna call them Aham. did with ~ NSF International, they did look like two specific products. So one was the Filtral 160, a washing machine microfiber filter with a 20 micron mesh. And the other was a Hayward pool filter canister fitted with pool filter socks, a product built for swimming pools, tested here as a stand-in for a laundry filter.

4:22 So they're not really testing the variety of filters, they're testing one. actual washing machine microfiber filter and another one which is a pool filter which probably won't work now the results in their own words you know the filters capture about at most 26% of the material and only a portion of that material that they that they caught would actually be microfibers the number represents like the total material caught without confirming how much of it was actually microfibers maybe you think it's less maybe we don't I don't know Now, as I mentioned, Ocean Conservancy's number is 90%. and and has its own little gap in to be in to be all transparent from the research that I found. I don't know where they pulled the 90% from.

5:05 I don't know if it's a specific study. I could not find it, but I did find a bunch of feather ~ testing, And and so independent testing outside either organization tells a clear story. One independent study found that Lint L-U-V-R, lover, Lint lover, ~ external filter captures 87% of fibers on average. Planet Care claims up to 98%. And Guppy's Friends mesh bag claims 79 to 86%. The Corobal reduces shedding by roughly 26 to 31%. I think that goes into the wash as you as you wash your clothes. An independent government review out of Connecticut found existing washing machine filters remove 80 to 89% of microfibers, like overall.

5:50 So although the neither organization's numbers are like, you know, within that, those range that they talk about, Ocean Conservancy's number of 90%, it sits pretty comfortably inside that range of that independent product testing, especially when they tested a bunch of different products and not pool, ~ pool filter, right? so I think that that helps when it when it looks at the legitimacy of that 90%. We know these microfibers will catch microfiber, like the microfiber filters will catch microfibers, right? Now, one part of the appliance industry's case does hold up though. A separate filter effectiveness study avoided using detergent during t ~ testing specifically because of concerns it would cause clogging.

6:32 In yesterday's show I mentioned that the clogging of it it can these microfibers when they go in water treatment plants, they can often get like kind of caught up with the biosolids. And they were worried about this happening there. Now, I don't know if there's testing that has it with and without ~ detergent, but this is something that is is some that is, I guess, a concern when they look at it. But when you're washing your clothes, you gotta wash it with detergent. So that actually matters in in this respect. So I so I don't really know what the number was off that study, but it did say that there was concern with the detergent clogging up ~ the microfibers within this. But you would think that detergent would just be solvent within the the washer. I don't know. I'm not I I I'm not an engineer in that kind of way, but you know you'd think that's that would be common sense.

7:17 But we'll see. now There's also a life cycle argument, right? It claims it takes roughly 13 years, longer than a washing machine's working life these days, for a filter to capture as much plastic as it took to manufacture it. And they warn about clogging, flooding risks, and burden on people with disabilities who'd have to maintain these filters. So these are different sort of concerns that go around. I I haven't read up on the filters if they if they address those concerns. but there's obviously some controversy here. There's two different organizations with very different numbers. The Ocean Conservancy kind of seems right with those numbers, but there's also some other things that you have to look out for. Even there was also like a commercial washing machine ~ manufacturer or or business owner who was worried about it like with a coin ~ washing machines.

8:05 They said they use a different type of ~ of washer where the you can't add a filter, it's a drain. That goes down the bottom. So they wouldn't be able to use it in those commercial ones. But this campaign that the Ocean Conservancy is running, not safe for wash, is for residential and not commercial. That could be addressed at another time, I guess. Now let's talk. So we talk about, you know, Ocean Conservancy wants this bill passed and they want they want to have government make sure that it's legislated that these manufacturers have to put these filters on, these microfilters on, right? So how do we get this passed? Has it been tried? Where is it all coming from? California passed a bill through its state legislature in 2023 And it reached the governor's desk.

8:49 Now the governor Newsom vetoed it, citing rising costs to consumers, but his actual veto letter never named a number like or a study or source. He simply just asserted that the concern and called for more research first. Now, Ocean Conservancy's own economic analysis put the costs of a built-in filter at about $14 to $20 per machine. And a retrofit filter installed after the fact runs closer to about $100 to $300. A gap that comes down to comparing like the factory installed part against the aftermarket add-on. So if these are legislated to be built as these washing machines are. being built, then you would think it would be the cheaper version.

9:29 Of course, the consumer would probably take the cost, but it would be interesting to see what would happen. So Newsom's own admission administration had previously endorsed This exact filter approach in California's own statewide microplastic strategy, which makes this veto read as a reversal of the administration's own prior position. It's it's kind of funny, right? Like you see that the California said, yeah, we're gonna put this in our strategy, and then all of a sudden they come in and and they don't put it in. So you wonder if if maybe it's just Governor Newsom just didn't look at this strategy or his advisors didn't tell him to but about this strategy and they forgot, They were coming out of COVID and they're worried about costs for everybody. Who knows what they were worried about? I would imagine it would have taken a while before these microfilters would be put on and assembled and and put together and and approved, but that's where we are ~ with with the government of of of California.

10:18 Now, as I mentioned yesterday, France became the first country in the world to pass this law and it's and it's still unenforced because the technical rules needed to make the law were never really finished. And the Aham points to both California and France as evidence that the policy doesn't work. The bills both passed in the legislature, people want them. This is not a matter of People don't want them, but it's just a matter of like it's not going through because of specific individuals. So we wonder what's happening. Now, around the US, there are five states that are actually putting bills through or have bills through or have tried to put bills through. So New York and Illinois ~ both have real bills moving right now. New York's comes from Assemblywoman Anna Kills.

10:59 Kills, I think is how you pronounce it. And Illinois has ~ companion bills in both its house and Senate. ~ Oregon Already tried once, a two twenty twenty-five bill died in committee and a renewed push in twenty twenty six doesn't have enough support yet to move it. New Jersey and Pennsylvania both have bills reported as in progress, But those are not necessarily being put through with full confidence. And obviously, California, we already know that the Newsom vetoed it. And then a federal bill called the Fighting Fibers Act is sitting in a Senate committee room right now, waiting on its second attempt after an earlier version died in the previous Congress. So, you know, there's still a lot to go through. I don't know if there's anything environmental that's gonna happen with this federal administration.

11:42 I assume that there's more in the states that we could like in the in the US states that can happen. Same with provinces. Maybe even in in Canada, I would like to see a bill go through. I don't know if I don't think it's required here in Canada. So it's always good to know. ~ but to be honest, nobody know really knows how this campaign is gonna end. Ocean Conservancy doesn't give up. They are always great at doing that. They are going to fight this and they are going to ensure that all ~ concerns are addressed and they can be. properly laid out so that more and more people can take part in this campaign and talk to your local representative, your state, your federal, and your local representative, ~ whether you're in the states, whether you're in Canada, wherever you're listening to this, this is like an important part.

12:23 This can really help reduce ~ microfiber f f microfibers from being released into the water system and of course back into us by up to ninety percent. That's huge. That's a huge, huge thing. So that's the episode for today. if you want to find out more, you can go to oceanconservancy.org slash NSFW or contact your representatives, find out what's moving in your own state. and of course, ~ I think that's that's always fun. And and the same playbook ~ works locally wherever you are, since the exact fight is playing out in other countries too. So it doesn't matter where you are. Now next episode. We are going to talk about who actually pays for all this and the economics behind laws like the California's SP 54 and who foots the bill for cleaning up plastic pollution today.

13:11 That's on tomorrow's episode. So don't miss out. Hit that follow button. And thank you so much for joining me. If you want to get in contact, if you have questions or concerns, let me know. I am available. Just DM me. My links to my socials are down below. LinkedIn is probably the best way these days to get on. I'm always on it. ~ or or Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, whichever one you want. But of course, don't forget to tune in tomorrow. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast. I'm your host, Angela Lewin. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.