“Matter Industries founder Adam Root has developed a filter to trap microfibres at home and on an industrial scale…

Root’s invention is the basis of his Bristol-based company, Matter Industries, which claims it can capture 97% of microfibres before they escape a washing machine. In 2025, it made Matter a runner-up in the oceans category of the Earthshot prize. (Root was just behind Rebecca Hubbard, the director of the High Seas Alliance, who campaigned to create the historic high seas treaty.) Matter’s filter is now available in more than 30 European markets and the UK, and the company plans to expand to the US…

His invention joins others including Xeros, and the US-based Cleanr and Filtrol, that work to filter out microplastic before it reaches waterways.

His filter cleaning itself is, according to Root, what makes his particular invention unique. Matter Industries finds that each wash cycle produces about 1g of fibre waste, and to capture as much as possible the mesh must be especially fine. But this makes filters prone to blockage, so Root’s version rinses itself after each wash, clearing the mesh surface so that wastewater can continue flowing through.”

From The Guardian.