washing machine microplastic filters

[Tim+]

Anyone got one?

It?s seems that some folk feel that we?re killing the planet with all the microplastics from our washing machines.

Personally, I find it hard to get too worked up about something we?ve all being doing for years without an apparent ecological catastrophe happening. I don?t dispute the presence of microplastics in the sea but I?m not convinced enough about the damage to spend £7-8 every 20 washes on a filter system that has to be posted back for recycling.

What do you all think?

Tim

[alan_m]

Recycling probably just involves back flushing and disposing of the material down the nearest drain :)

I assume that the filter may also be completely blocked more quickly by the dirt that is being washed from the clothes.

[newshound]

Eco-bollox

[Steve Walker]

No thanks! With a family of five, we'd be paying for a new filter every week and a half to a fortnight and that's a significant yearly cost on top of the usual ones.

I can see such filters being replaced by dummies or one with the internals removed very quickly - rather like de-catting a performance car ... but with no MOT to catch people out.

[NY]

So does your waste water all evaporate (as for the Dead Sea), rather than going (via a sewage works) into a river and then the sea?

[alan_m]

It does where I live - a quick trip through the local water treatment works then straight out to the river estuary and North Sea.

[Tim Lamb]

In message <t10b4l$dge$ [e-mail], NY [e-mail] writes

It is comforting to think that, several days after I have flushed a my toilet, some small part will be pumped into the reservoirs that supply drinking water to a large part of North London:-)

[NY]

I once heard it described as "every drop of water that Londoners drink has already passed through five people's kidneys". I presume that is excluding the treated/untreated sewage that finds it way to the sea, evaporates and falls as rain - a process that has been going on for thousands of years.

[The Natural Philosopher]

The great problem that Western economies encountered was this:

What do you give to people to do, when machines are doing all the real work, and people largely already have everything they need, and they are getting bored of shiny toys?

Simples!

You invent 'needs' and you invent 'jobs'... The rest, is history

[The Natural Philosopher]

Bit of both

[The Natural Philosopher]

I don't think treated sewage ends up in the sea.

[Andy Burns]

Buy more cotton and linen!

[charles]

Eventually . sometimes by way of a river. (not the solids, normally)

[NY]

I don't think treated sewage (liquid only) is clean enough to feed back into drinking water in large concentrations, though I'm sure some does end up there after dilution with rainwater, especially in large cities. But surely most treated sewage goes into rivers and hence to the sea for evaporation and falling as fresh rainwater.

Solids tend to go for farmers' manure, though subject to stringent rules about when it can be used to make sure it has biodegraded far enough by the time crops are picked/harvested. I'm not sure whether the rules are the same for human and pig waste (carnivore), but both are more stringent than for cow/sheep/chicken (herbivore).

[Tim Lamb]

Umm.. The plant at East Hyde, Luton was upgraded to a *polymer process* many years ago. I believe the outfall is fed to the R. Lea.

I don't know what the dilution factor might be but the mix is reckoned to be *potable* some 8 miles downstream.

Not used here now but stored solids were always good for a crop of Tomatoes:-)

[Tim Lamb]

Planned obsolescence?

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

The water that comes out of a sewage plant is not 'treated sewage' That IS the solids

[Andrew Gabriel]

I tend to only wear cotton, and consequently almost never wash anything made of plastic.

Of course, growing cotton kills the plant too, and today's low water content eco machines that have to wash clothes by rubbing them together wears them out much faster than earlier machines that washed by lifting them in and out of the water without rubbing them together, meaning I have to buy more cotton clothes.

It wouldn't surprise me if today's low water content eco machines generate much more microplastics too. Many such eco policies back-fire.

Andrew

[Andrew]

Wash things like fleeces as little as possible.

[Andrew]

Since when the wet wipes and fat bergs all encapsulate the micro- plastics :-)