An English inventor has partnered with home appliance giant Bosch to produce a washing machine filter for artificial microfibers, identified as the world’s most significant source of microplastic pollution.
Microplastic pollution may be the world’s largest public health threat. Scientists have found the tiny fragments in every human organ and tissue, from the brain to the placenta. While all health consequences aren’t yet known, research has shown microplastics dysregulate hormones and are linked to stunted growth, reduced fertility, and stomach, kidney and liver problems.
Many people associate plastic pollution with bottles in the sea. But the largest source is microfibers, which come from artificial clothing and textiles and tire tread wear. Inventor Adam Root says every load of home laundry sheds about 1 gram of tiny fossil fuel-based thread filaments. These are washed out of machines, into sewage systems, then rivers and eventually the sea.
Root’s company, Matter Industries, has developed an easy-to-install, self-cleaning, filterless device about the size of a food processor. It hooks up to home washing machines and sells for around $250. “The most common thing we hear is: ‘I cannot believe how much material is coming out of the washing machine,’” Root told the Guardian. “Somebody sent me [photos of] dinner-platefuls.”
The filter also traps normal fabric fibers that carry synthetic dyes and other chemicals harmful to biology. But Root and Matter Industries aren’t relying on consumers alone. The company is targeting textile factories and industrial washing operations, where the problem scales dramatically. Dyeing and washing at a single factory can release 360 metric tons of microfibers in one year.
German manufacturing giants Bosch and Siemens have already teamed up with Matter to expand the technology. $20 million in fundraising has helped the team take the product to market. Since the home device line launched in June, enough units have been shipped to capture 4.6 tons of microfibers over their operational lives.
Root is also campaigning in the UK for wastewater treatment plants to install versions of the filter to handle discharge from home washing machines. Matter Industries finished as a finalist for the Earthshot Prize in 2025.
