A British green tech company has won an international prize for a washing machine device that reduces ocean pollution – and were used by Coldplay on tour.
Cleaner Seas Group is made up of a collection of surfers and seafarers from Cornwall, who developed the Indi microfibre filter.
It can be retrofitted to any domestic washing machine and captures 90% of the microfibres that shed every time we wash our clothes.
Coldplay fit the filters to its Music of the Spheres tour washing machines – as part of its efforts to reduce its tour’s carbon footprint.
The team beat over 200 companies from across the globe to win the top title at the international Ocean Impact Pitchfest Awards in Australia.
Cleaner Seas Group saw their Indi filter recognized as a transformative product capable of significantly reducing ocean pollution on a vast scale.
Globally, an estimated 14 million tons of microplastics are thought to be floating in our oceans, which are being consumed by marine life, and through the food chain by humans, affecting our health.
But the company states their technology “is a world-first circular solution” to tackling this problem.
Launched seven months ago in May, the business has seen numerous successes such as a nomination for the environmental award The Earthshot Prize and backing from Coldplay.
The green-tech company states if every household in the UK had an Indi
filter fitted, it would prevent around 91 million microfibres per household per year, or the same amount of plastic as found in 1.3 billion shopping bags, from entering our seas.
Around 35% of all global releases of primary microplastics into our oceans are estimated to originate from synthetic textiles.
What the Indi filter does is prevent up to 90% of synthetic fibers released in the laundry process – which helps prevent microfibres and microplastics from entering marine life.
It does this by filtering out microfibres down to one micron – five times smaller than the tip of a needle.
Cleaner Seas Group says their microfibre filters (if fitted to the 25m (82.02 feet) domestic washing machines in the UK) could remove two humpback whales’ worth of microfibres from entering our oceans every year.
Dave Miller, CEO of Cleaner Seas Group, commented, “Everyone in the company has a personal connection to the ocean.
“We are surfers, kayakers, and wild swimmers, and we passionately believe that we urgently need to turn the tide on microfibre pollution to prevent microfibres from entering the ocean, marine life, and our food chain.
“And it’s not just the oceans; microplastics are everywhere in our environment; on our fields, in our rain and even our clouds.
“Microplastics have now been found in the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe.
“That’s why we have tried to make the Indi filter both as affordable and effective as possible.
“Thanks to this international award, we are now in a position to take our domestic and industrial filters, designed in Bude, to a global market, helping households and companies across the world to make a real difference in saving our seas.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
