GUPPYFRIEND Bucket Filter

Microplastics are everywhere. Home textiles such as upholstered furniture, curtains, carpets, and coatings on surfaces, clothing, and shoe soles are all sources of microplastics.

The proportion of synthetic fibers in house dust strongly depends on the materials found in the living environment. However, household dust studies have concluded that house dust primarily consists of plastic and chemical fibers.

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

It can't be reliably filtered out by sewage treatment plants and ends up in nature with sewage sludge, which is responsible for climate-damaging ethylene and methane gas emissions. Millions of tonnes of tiny plastic particles enter the land and sea and impact our natural carbon reservoirs, which cause innumerable cancers in humans and animals and are also suspected of leading to reproductive disorders and the extinction of important microorganisms. Before broken plastic fibers and fragments disintegrate into even smaller pieces, microplastics must be filtered out where they are produced. All experts agree: that microplastics don't belong in nature!

The "sludge" remaining in the GUPPYFRIEND Bucket Filter can be removed when damp and disposed of in the residual waste. After use, the filter surface can be cleaned with a cloth or a soft brush (natural bristles, please!). Please do not clean under running water!

In general, yes, you shouldn't use just any cleaner, but make sure it's biodegradable and doesn't contain microplastics in solid form or liquid polymers. Surfactants from palm oil are of natural origin, but here we would rather have a clean house while keeping our rainforests intact. There are other alternatives! Always clean responsibly and avoid bringing the filter into contact with heavily overdosed, viscous, or acidic washing solutions.

The "sludge" collected in the GUPPYFRIEND Bucket Filter consists of different materials that shouldn't return to the environment or the material cycle. Disposing of it in your container for residual waste is the safest solution to avoid this.

Yes, sewage treatment plants clean and filter our wastewater. But there are at least three significant problems with this:

1. Even modern sewage treatment plants can only partially remove microplastics, and especially the smaller parts are problematic. Studies confirm that considerable amounts of microplastics can be found downstream from a sewage treatment plant.
2. The sewage sludge filtered out in the treatment plant is usually used as fertilizer and spread on agricultural fields, which leads to extreme microplastic pollution.
3. To avoid backwater into our households during heavy rainfall, partially untreated wastewater polluted with microplastics is diverted directly into rivers and lakes.

So, get involved! Filter your cleaning water! You're the last stop before microplastics from your household dust are released into nature!

For the GUPPYFRIEND Bucket Filter, we use an untreated, silicone-free, and particularly fine laboratory filter fabric made of polyester, characterised by high alkaline resistance. Since it's made from a monofilament, the filter fabric doesn't release microplastics into nature.