"We are eating our fleece. Every time we do laundry, our clothes shed tiny microfibers (including plastic), which go down the drains of our washing machines, through wastewater treatment facilities and into our waterways.Everyone who wears and washes clothes is part of this pollution. Everyone who eats or breathes could suffer the consequences," said the team, who learned about the microfiber problem while working on marine debris along the US East Coast.

"It became clear very quickly that this could be the biggest pollution problem facing our ocean. We knew we needed a solution, and the ocean itself helped us come up with one."

Design Inspired by Nature
Most washing machines do not have filters. The ones that do are only good to keep keys and coins from clogging your pipes. A standard filter cannot do what needs to be done: catch fibers too small for the human eye to see AND allow water flow. So, they have turned to nature. Coral does exactly what we need; it catches tiny things from flowing water. It's easy: you just drop, or throw it into your washing machine (any washing machine - front or top loaders, with and without center spindles) and do your wash as usual. It is easy to use and easy to clean.

Cora swooshes around in the laundry and just like coral, allows water to flow, while picking up those little pieces of microfiber and catching them in her stalks. When you take it out of the washer or dryer, have a look. When you see clumps of fuzz, just pull them out and put them in the trash bin along with your dryer lint.

The Cora Ball was designed as an equal opportunity fiber catcher, helping you protect our public waterways from a host of potentially harmful materials and chemicals. In the US, our clothes are 60% plastic. The rest may be made from natural materials, but they are often covered in dyes, heavy metals and other chemicals. So, it makes sense to catch all of this manmade material before it ends up throughout the marine ecosystem, in the bellies of fish, and ultimately, on our plates.

Find the product here.