Samsung launches new washing machine eco filter

Samsung has announced the launch of the new Less Microfiber Filter, an external washing machine filter designed to significantly reduce emissions during laundry cycles.

Designed with inspiration from apparel maker Patagonia and expertise from the global ocean conversation organisation Ocean Wise, the filter is an improvement on last year’s Less Microfiber Cycle to substantially cut microplastics and enable sustainable laundry washing.

The new filter is now available in the UK and will be available in other countries in the third quarter.

Moohyung Lee, Executive Vice President and Head of R&D Team of digital Appliances Business at Samsung Electronics, said: “With microplastics emissions to our oceans continuing to increase and regulations being strengthened in many countries, as a well as microplastics becoming a growing health concern for people everywhere, Samsung worked with Ocean Wise and Patagonia to engineer technology to help prevent the release of microplastics from our daily life.

“With innovations like the Less MicroFiber Filter and Cycle, Samsung is helping to enable Everyday sustainability in a wider array of products and making eco-conscious daily practices second nature in the home.”

Samsung developed the Less Microfiber Cycle, a wash course that reduces microplastic shedding by 54 per cent in part by leveraging Samsung’s Ecobubble technology, using bubbles to help dissolve and absorb detergent, less heat and energy is required to wash clothes.

The Less Microfiber Filter takes this a step further by preventing up to 98 per cent of microplastics released during laundry from escaping into the ocean if used as specified which is the equivalent to eight 500ml plastic bottles per year when used four times a week. The Less Microfiber Filter also has a mountable design style that allows it to be used with standard washing machine models. To verify the technology efficacy and its features, both the Cycle and the Filter were independently evaluated by Ocean Wise using a peer-reviewed microfiber shedding test protocol at the marine organisation’s lab in Vancouver.

Samsung is committed to developing new products and technologies that takes steps towards a more sustainable future. The Less Microfiber Filter is made using recycled plastics and was designed to be long-lasting and easy to maintain. The filter’s blades capture the microplastics with a 65-70 micrometre wide mesh, then redirect and compress these microplastics to one side, meaning the filter only needs to be cleaned roughly once a month.

Connecting with Samsung’s intelligent connectivity platform SmartThings, the filter tracks how full it is, alerting users when cleaning or other troubleshooting is required via the SmartThings app. The Less Microfiber Cycle is available as a pre-set option on select Samsung washing machines from 2022 and can be activated with just the press of a button. It will be expanded to users of previous Wi-Fi enabled Samsung washing machine models through an over the network update this year.