A Comprehensive Literature Study on Microfibres from Washing Machines

The ubiquitous finding of microplastic in the abiotic and biotic environment has gained a lot of attention recently in the media, scientific community and among the general public. One of the known sources of microfibres is the washing of textiles. It would be a conceivable option to install filters in domestic washing machines that would sift out microplastics to prevent this pollution. The aim of this paper was to conduct a comprehensive literature search on microplastics filters in washing machines published already. Although the results of this research show that there has been an effort to find solutions for this problem in a worldwide context, there has been no known proven system that prevents microfibre release in the aquatic environment which does not have a harmful influence on the washing behaviour and/or washing results.