The oceans are drowning in plastic debris. Miles of plastic float through the ocean current and this plastic mess continues to grow at an alarming rate. Most people think this floating plastic comes from people dumping trash into the ocean, and that’s true. But a large part of this plastic pandemic comes from the tiny particles of plastic that come off of clothing in the wash, as well as the bottles, fishing gear, and other plastic containers. We don’t realize it, but we might ingest more than 11,000 pieces of plastic every year when we eat shellfish, according to U.K.’s Lisbeth Van Cauwenberghe from Ghent University.
Those little pieces of plastic are not that little when they form a marine plastic bond. More than 700,000 microfibers can come off a load of clothes, according to Imogen Napper, a post-doctorate student at the University of Plymouth. And the shocking news is a sizable amount of those microfibers find their way to our oceans. Ms. Napper thinks doing our laundry is not as harmless as we believe because our laundry plays a large role in the plastic invasion in our oceans.
Rachel Miller, an American windsurfing teacher, who went on a mission to clean up a beach on a small island off the coast of Maine saw the impact that plastic has on the environment. Heavy storms brought tons of plastic debris to that small island, and Miller knew she had to do something. Miller studied marine archeology before she started teaching windsurfing. So she decided to do something about the plastic pandemic that reached that island off the coast of Maine.
Miller first discovered the plastic mess on the island in 2009, and that’s when she began doing her research. She wanted to find a way to stop the microfibers that come off clothing in the wash from reaching the ocean. In April 2018, Ms. Miller started selling what she calls a Cora Ball. Her Cora Ball captures tiny pieces of microfiber that come off clothes in the washing machine.
The Cora Ball is four inches in diameter, and it’s made from recycled rubber. The design of the Cora Ball is similar to the structure of ocean coral. The Cora Ball doesn’t catch every piece of microfiber in a load of wash, but it does trap 25 to 33 percent of the microfibers in every load of wash. Ms. Miller said the Coral Ball helps curb some of the plastic that pollutes our oceans, but it’s not a complete solution for the ocean plastic problem. Visit the website at coraball.com.
Dil Bole Oberoi
