The facts: washing technology to save the planet by Oxwash
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Oxwash founder, Kyle Grant, lets me in on some of their main investigative research and findings on traditional washing, its environmental effects and how Oxwash is changing the model.
1) The Laundry industry emits 265,000 tonnes of C02 in the UK alone, causing 35% ocean plastic pollution and using 65% of our drinking water.
2) Up to 360billion litres of water goes down the drain each year from UK washing machines – the equivalent of draining Windermere (300bn litres).
3) Global laundry usage releases 14,000 tons of microfibers into the oceans each year.
4) In the Arctic, scientists found an average of 40 micro plastic particles per cubic metre of water, to depths of 1000m. Up to 75% of the fibres found here Arctic were polyester in origin 14,000 micro plastic particles were found per litre of snow in the same region.
5) In the wash every type of garment will shed fibres, and these are so fine they escape the filtration process in a typical washing machine. Plastic micro fibres do not biodegrade, instead they persist in the environment, attracting other toxic materials to swell in size, decreasing the available oxygen in the water.
6) Research on the health implications of microfibres is still in its infancy, scientists have found microfibres in everywhere, including our own body fat. Add the cocktail of flame retardant PBDE’s, BPA’s, and other chemicals that our clothes are treated with, and the overall picture is one of the environment toxicity.
7) Oxwash deploys microfiber filtration technology to remove more than 95% of fibres shed during washing.
8) By using Oxwash customers can prevent 174kg of C02 from being emitted per year compared to using their own washers and dryers, as well as replacing microplastic waste.