In case you missed it, we didn’t but didn’t think it would fly, our government is proposing to make microplastic filters mandatory in all domestic and commercial washing machines.
So, on the face of it, without putting a great deal of thought into this most people would probably think that this is a great idea, getting the plastics out the water runs and fish etc, protecting our waterways and so on.
But, we don’t agree.
If you think about it this is treating the symptom, not the disease.
The problem here isn’t washing machines of any flavour at all, it’s the materials that are put in them shedding these plastics that are.
The next logical question then becomes, why are the government not legislating to ban the use of microplastics in clothing sold in the UK?
We think we know the answer to that one, it’s too hard. And maybe the fashion industry etc has a bigger sway, who knows for sure but in our eyes, they’re targetting the wrong thing trying to solve a problem that shouldn’t even exist.
The fashion/textiles industries come in for a lot of flack for waste and it’s not our area of expertise at all, other than when they meet the lowly washing machine but in our view, that’s the true problem and, if you want to address waste from fabrics then, target them, not the appliance industry.
Putting It Onto The Consumer
Some of us here have long memories and huge industry experience (the polite way of saying we’re old) and we remember the days of filters in washing machines that people had to clean out manually after every few washes. There was one huge problem with that.
People didn’t do it.
What happened then was a “no drain” fault and a huge effort to clean it or, a repairer was required to call to clean it and get the machine back in working order.
Depending on what you were washing that filter could need to be cleaned after every wash or every few, some people could get away with weeks and even months in some cases but, if it wasn’t cleaned out sure as eggs are eggs, it’d block.
This is similar.
In order to remove the plastics (we presume along with any other related gunk) that are collected by the filter, it will have to be removed and cleaned.
If not, it’ll block.
Now for repairers that may well be a great thing you’d say and, to a degree it may well be but having to argue with a customer that they have to be the callout as it’s not covered in the warranty is not a lot of fun for most repairers. They do not like being put in that position and, if it’s a block then it’s not covered by any warranty and it’s on the customer to pick up the tab for the call.
Meaning, that the onus is then on owners to maintain and clean these filters, and responsibly dispose of whatever is collected and if they don’t, they have the privilege of paying for their lack of diligence.
Having experienced this exact issue in the past we can assure you, a great many people will not clean the filter and a great many people will get hit with a bill and all those people, they ain’t gonna be happy teddies.
But the point here is, that all the responsibility and costs are on consumers.
What Now?
If this is introduced and it may well sneak past with no opposition as nobody seems to care or be telling the government this common sense stuff then the question becomes what to do with what’s collected in the filter.
So far as we can see there’s no route to dispose of it responsibly as yet.
Guess what, that’s going in the general waste bin in most homes. Or the plastics one. And, both could be wrong depending on what the filter collects.
We’re a bit confused here as there seems to be no real plan in place for it.
Overall A Good Thing?
We’d say probably not.
The idea of getting microplastics out of laundry is laudable but, we don’t think this is the way to do it as it’s fraught with issues and ones that users will not be pleased about, at all.
And that’s even before we get to the costs to fit these filters, which will add to the costs of a machine or retro-fitting of filters and the resources used to make them which are well, plastics. See, irony isn’t dead after all.
Manufacturers may well be okay with it as they can charge extra, and pump the price a bit and that’s no bad thing for them and, even if it’s cost-neutral, they won’t care.
But if the government do push this through, repairers can look forward to years and years of work cleaning filters. Again. It’s like back to the future!
