World-first partnership tackling microfibre pollution - News Release: 05/04/2024

Falmouth Harbour has become the first harbour in the world to partner with the Cleaner Seas Group, installing their ground-breaking green tech filters in the marina amenity centre to prevent plastic microfibres washing from clothes into the sea.
Each of the industrial INDIKON microfibre filters attached to the harbour’s washing machines will prevent around 91 million microfibres a year from entering and polluting the water. Research by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has found that microfibres from synthetic fabrics are the largest source of primary microplastics in our oceans. 

“Washing our clothes seems a harmless enough activity,” says Falmouth Harbour’s Environment Manager Vicki Spooner, “but if we all took steps to prevent the microfibres from our washing machines entering our oceans we could collectively make a vast reduction in the amount of pollution affecting ecosystems, marine life, and our food chain.
“By partnering with the Cleaner Seas Group – as the first harbour authority in the world to do so – we want to spread the word and awareness of what every household could do in a small way to become part of a solution to a major problem.”
The smaller Indi home microfibre filter was the first filter developed by the Cleaner Seas Group made using 100% recycled plastic. The filter unit takes 10 minutes to install and plugs into any washing machine to remove the millions of microfibres washing out of clothes each year, with a circular cartridge return and recycle system meaning the microfibres do not end up in landfill either.
The INDIKON filter - now installed on Falmouth Harbour’s industrial washing machines in the marina amenity centre - was launched last year as a scaled up version of the Indi home filter, adapted to take on microfibre pollution on a much greater scale.
“Research is growing and microfibres have now been found in the water we drink, the food we eat and the air we breathe,” says Dave Miller
Co-founder and CEO of Cleaner Seas Group. “We are dedicated to creating solutions to tackle this problem on a global and local scale.
“Everyone can do their bit and, in this case, it is game-changing to partner with Falmouth Harbour: as the gateway to the Atlantic Ocean it is leading the way in reducing impacts on the environment and is perfectly placed to raise the profile of the huge problem of microfibres and work with us to do something about it.”
Falmouth Harbour is a Trust Port with a purpose to safely and sustainably shape and maintain the Harbour for the benefit of all stakeholders and the wider community.
The partnership with the Cleaner Seas Group is among a number of innovative and progressive environmental harbour initiatives to lower carbon footprint, reduce pollution, increase biodiversity and involve the wider community in finding solutions for all of the above.
For more on the work of Falmouth Harbour including its wide range of environmental initiatives please see www.falmouthharbour.co.uk   or for more on the Cleaner Seas Group®  visit www.cleanerseas.com  
 
ENDS
Notes to editors:-
Images attached with a photo credit to Cleaner Seas Group much appreciated.
 

• Cleaner Seas Group® - Cleaner Seas Group are a global team of innovators, designers, entrepreneurs and environmentalists working together to make a real and tangible impact on the future of our planet.
  Established in 2017 in Bude, Cornwall, Cleaner Seas Group® mission is to restore and protect our oceans. Cleaner Seas Group’s first task is to take on the biggest ocean microplastic polluter: microfibres from laundry wastewater.
  The Indi™ filter is a domestic, retrofit washing machine filter, available to bu, that empowers every washing machine owner to become a part of the solution.
• Cleaner Seas™ research and development team continue to innovate around the issue and are in conversation with water treatment companies, textiles manufacturers, washing machine manufacturers and government to affect change and work together on wide reaching and effective solutions.
  www.cleaner-seas.com  

• Falmouth Harbour is a Trust Port with a statutory duty to safely and sustainably shape and maintain the Harbour for the benefit of all stakeholders and the community.
• Any surpluses made by Falmouth Harbour and its trading subsidiaries Falmouth Haven and Falmouth Pilot Services are reinvested into the Harbour to benefit everyone, creating jobs and opportunities.
• As a statutory Trust Port created by an Act of Parliament more than 150 years ago Falmouth Harbour has responsibility for the Inner Harbour at Falmouth (excluding Falmouth Docks), the Penryn River up as far as Coastlines Wharf, the southern part of the Carrick Roads and a large part of Falmouth Bay.

• Falmouth Harbour provides pilotage services for the anchorages in Falmouth Bay and Carrick Roads, Falmouth Docks, Truro, Penryn and St Mawes as well as the Helford river, the Quarries on the East side of the Lizard Peninsula and the Falmouth, Gerrans and Veryan Bays. Depending on length, destination and cargo, a Falmouth Pilot (a member of the Falmouth Pilots LLP) is required to assist ships entering FHC’s waters.
• A Board of seven Falmouth Harbour Commissioners and a CEO are appointed to manage and oversee the running of Falmouth Harbour in the best interests of its stakeholders - in accordance with a set of duties and powers.
• Falmouth Harbour operates to the standards in the Modernising Trust Ports written by the Ports Division for the Department for Transport as part of the process of Modernising of Trust Ports and last updated in 2018.

Contacts:-
Falmouth Harbour – Vicki Spooner, Falmouth Harbour Environment & Quality Systems Manager -  vickispooner@falmouthharbour.co.uk     - 01326 213537
Cleaner Seas Group:
Dave Miller - Co-founder and CEO: dave@cleanerseasgroup.com
Avril Greenaway - Co-founder and Impact Director - avril@cleanerseasgroup.com

Mel Connell -  mel@cleanerseasgroup.com - 07985100983 for any press or marketing enquiries
Louise Midgley Communications – louise@midgleycomms.co.uk / 07831696093