Patagonia, Samsung reveal wins versus microplastic
Director of philosophy at US outdoor brand Patagonia, Vincent Stanley (pictured), has taken to the stage at Las Vegas consumer technology show CES to share more details about the company’s work with Seoul-based conglomerate Samsung to develop microplastic-filtering washing machine systems.
Speaking during Samsung’s press conference at the event, Mr Vincent described how the former’s new Less Microfiber wash cycle had been found by Vancouver’s Ocean Wise Plastics Lab researchers to cut microplastic shedding by up to 54% when tests were run on a 2-kilogram load of 100% polyester hoodies. Testing was done using both a conventional European WW4000T washer on a general synthetics cycle and a WW7000B model running on the Less Microfiber cycle.
The newer cycle harnesses Samsung’s proprietary Ecobubble technology to facilitate faster absorption of laundry detergents, which in turn helps to limit microplastics shedding caused by the abrasion of clothing inside the drum, according to the company. Already available in Europe, it will be introduced to the South Korean market next, beginning in February, before it is rolled out for US customers “soon”.
Mr Stanley also discussed the co-developed Less Microfiber Filter, which Samsung says can further reduce the release of microplastics by “preventing them from escaping into the ocean at the end of wash cycles”.
The new filtering technology is set to debut in Europe later this year.
Mr Stanley on stage at CES. Credit: Samsung.
