GUPPYFRIEND Clean Green Set

Microplastics are everywhere. Home textiles such as upholstered furniture, curtains, and carpets, as well as surface coatings, clothing, and shoe soles, generate microplastics.

These fibrous and particulate emissions, which mostly result from abrasion, aging, and sunlight, collect along with various natural materials like hair and skin flakes to form so-called "dust bunnies." The synthetic content in household dust depends heavily on the materials present in the living environment.

In addition to hair, skin particles, and mites, household dust consists primarily of plastic abrasion from carpets, blankets, upholstered furniture, curtains, shoe soles, textiles, and other objects.

It cannot be reliably filtered out by wastewater treatment plants, ends up in nature with sewage sludge, and is responsible there for the emissions of climate-damaging ethylene and methane gases. Millions of tons of tiny plastic particles are already destroying CO2 sinks on land and in water. They can cause various types of cancer in humans and animals and are suspected of leading to reproductive disorders and thus the extinction of important microorganisms. Before broken-off plastic fibers and fragments disintegrate into even smaller pieces, microplastics must be filtered out where they are created. Because all experts agree: microplastics simply do not belong in the environment!

The "sludge" remaining in the bucket filter can be removed while moist and disposed of with residual waste. After use, the filter surface can be cleaned with a cloth or a soft brush (natural bristles!). Attention: Please do not clean under running water!

In principle, yes. However, you should not use just any cleaner; make sure yours is biodegradable and does not contain solid microplastics or liquid polymers. While surfactants derived from palm oil are of natural origin, we prefer clean soil and an intact rainforest. There are alternatives! Please always clean responsibly and be sure not to bring the filter into contact with heavily overdosed, viscous, or acidic cleaning solutions.

The "sludge" collected in the bucket filter consists of a collection of various materials that should under no circumstances be released into the environment or returned to the material cycle.

To avoid this, disposal in a sealed container in the residual waste is the safest solution.

True. Wastewater treatment plants clean and filter our wastewater. But there are at least three major problems:

1. Even modern treatment plants cannot completely remove microplastics. The smaller particles, in particular, are problematic. Studies show that significant amounts of microplastics are found in the river "after" the treatment plant.
2. The sewage sludge filtered out in the treatment plant is usually applied to fields by farmers as fertilizer, which leads to extreme microplastic pollution.
3. To avoid backups in our homes, during heavy rainfall, some untreated wastewater contaminated with microplastics is diverted directly into rivers and lakes.

So, get involved! Filter your wastewater! You are the final station before the microplastics from your household dust reach nature!

For the GUPPYFRIEND bucket filter, we use an untreated, silicone-free, and particularly fine laboratory filter mesh made of polyester, which is characterized by high alkali resistance. As it is a monofilament, the filter mesh itself does not release any microplastics into the environment.