Microplastics are everywhere — quite literally, as study after study shows. And while we can’t do much about the tiny, toxic particles already in our oceans, waterways, and bodies, we can try to slow the release of new ones. Matter is a startup attempting to do so (with a shiny new $10 million) using a new type of reusable filter that catches microfibers before they can reach the sea and disintegrate.
Synthetic (i.e. plastic) clothing materials like polyester shed countless pieces when they are made, worn, washed, and discarded. Durable, toxic, and omnipresent, these microscopic polymer scraps are taken in by filter-feeding creatures and then work their way up the food chain, causing biological havoc all the while. And that’s just one vector for the stuff.
Adam Root, co-founder and CEO of Matter, explained that he started looking into the problem in 2017, when it was beginning to become more clear how great a danger ...
