Hello all! As you may know, microplastics are a real problem in our environment. The most common microplastics are microfibers, which can come from fishing nets, cigarette butts, and synthetic fibers - our clothes.
So for Earth Month this year, I got myself a Cora Ball. It's this little laundry ball, made out of recycled plastic, that both helps catch microfibers being released when you do laundry, and also prevents them from shedding in the first place. The shed fibers it has caught will eventually build up in the ball, and you can just pick them out and put them in the trash (better the landfill than the water). It can also help catch pet hair!
In tests, it caught an average of 31% of microplastics from the laundry. So it's not a perfect solution, but cutting back almost a third is a good start, and it's easy to use for those of us who rent or use laundromats and can't install an external filter to the washing machine. You just throw it in the wash with your clothes!
I call it my investment purchase because it's rather spendy - almost $50, with a 10% off code in play, and including the cost of shipping. So this was my Earth Month sustainable purchase that I saved up for. But it should last for years.
It is now in my arsenal of sustainable laundry products. The dryer balls and static eliminator sheets are used when I use the tumble dryer (I don't always, I hang up clothes to dry a lot), which reduce drying time and reduce static on clothes so you don't need disposable dryer sheets or fabric softener, full of all those chemicals that stay coated on your clothes and in the dryer. I've been using these for years, and they're great! You can tell my dryer balls are old, because modern ones are either made out of wool or a different type of plastic. But I keep using mine until they fall apart.
With the Cora Ball, you just have to be careful to either not use it in the same wash with something it might snag on, or to put those things in a mesh bag so they won't catch (lace, straps, tassels, chunky knits). You don't want your lace to catch in the arms of the ball and get pulled around and possibly damaged.
I used it in my first laundry load last night, and it should last for many more to come!
Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!