Seven years ago, our team was preparing for the Cora Ball launch, hoping a laundry ball protecting the ocean would be enthusiastically received. From day one, we have been blown away by how fervently you care for the ocean and your passion for participating in sustainable solutions.
Join us in celebrating 100,000 Cora Balls with random Cora Ball giveaways from now until January 31st. Six lucky Ocean Protectors will receive a discount applied automatically to the item in their cart at checkout with one of the following:
*Please note that the item must already be in the cart prior to checkout to redeem the random discount. The discounted value will not count towards free shipping thresholds and this promotion cannot be combined with other cart discounts.
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Adventure is the gift that keeps on giving. It's not just a one-time experience, but a memory that will be cherished for years to come. By giving the gift of adventure, you're encouraging your friends to step out of their comfort zones, try something new, and create unforgettable moments. Whether it's a hike through a scenic trail or a new passion for sailing, you're offering an opportunity for delight and connection with nature.
Now that you've decided to give the gift of adventure, it's time to invite your friends! Reach out to them personally and let them know about your exciting plan. To make your gift even more special, we've come up with a few presentation ideas that not only build suspense for the receiver, but will be useful for countless adventures in the future.
Take some time to draw a picture of the destination you'll be exploring. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece, just a simple sketch that captures the essence of the place or a map of the trail. Once you've finished your drawing, slip it inside a Preserve sandwich container. Your friend is now ready to sit on a mountain top, in the forest or on a lake shore and enjoy a yummy packed lunch with you after their first thrilling mountain biking ride!
Gifting a lesson at a local community sailing center? You're going to need a salty/sweet treat to recharge after, so print off the voucher, gift card, or email confirmation, put it inside a coraclip gift bag with the reusable wooden bag clip and gift it together with your friend's favorite snack. This show your thoughtfulness and also build excitement and anticipation for the new experience.
Is your friend's favorite outing a day out on the town? Don't worry, we've got them covered, too! Plan a day to hit all your favorite shops, local park, a museum, and holiday sights in town and turn it into a scavenger hunt! Write the challenge on a piece of paper and slip it into the pouch of a set of Togoware reusable bamboo utensils! Traversing the urban jungle requires stamina and a recharging pitstop, so they'll be sure to put the gift to use!
This holiday season, break away from the traditional gifts and give the gift of adventure. Invite your friends out and create memories that will last a lifetime. Don't forget to add a personal touch to make it a gift from the heart. Your friends will appreciate the thoughtfulness and the opportunity to embark on an exciting day together. So, get ready to explore, have fun, and make this holiday season one filled with joy and unforgettable experiences!
]]>There are a lot of variables here, so you can play along with the Mr. Electricity laundry calculator and discover your own current cost of doing laundry and apply the savings for your household. For our example calculations, we used the high end of the range.
1. Water volume: There is a wide range for the cost of water depending on location, but the high end in the U.S. is $0.43/load.
2. Water heating: Heating your wash water can cost $0.68/load.
3. Detergent and fabric softener: A Tide pod costs $0.48 or more. Add 10 cents/load if you use fabric softener.
4. Tumble dryer: This is a range up to $0.72/hr depending on electricity/fuel costs. We'll use $0.72/load for our calculation.
5. Dryer sheets: A Bounce dryer sheet may only cost 4 cents/load, but you won't want to use them after this!
The average person does 50-100 loads of laundry each year, which means you could be spending $245/year/person in your household! The average U.S. family household doing 300 loads in a year, could spend over $735 annually!!!
We'll be working off our list of sustainable laundry best practices, so be sure to read the in-depth post about how each step also protects your clothes and the environment.
This will be easy now that you know consolidating loads and washing less frequently is a direct money saver. By following a few recommendations and using only full loads, you can reduce the number of loads you wash by 20-25%. Boom, you are already saving $61/person or $183 in a family household every year!
If you have a top-loading machine, the truly best way to save on water and energy is to switch to a front-loader (when it's time to get a new washer). They use 1/3 of the water, and a family can save $111/year in water and water heating costs.
With the "cold" setting, energy/load cost drops to just 4 cents/load, a 64 cent reduction! This is a 94% difference and an annual cost savings of $192 for a family household! 😵
Pods can be convenient and claim to be "ultra-concentrated", but they still cost 48+ cents per load. The MamaP detergent sheets cost just 20 cents per load and work perfectly well with the cold water setting. That's a 58% savings per load and there are are many more low-footprint benefits, too!
Hourly cost of an electric dryer is up to 72 cents/hr. Anytime you air hang-dry your clothes, you have a 100% savings and it helps your clothes, towels, etc. last longer. Priceless!
You may think 4 cents per load is not much, but it adds up. Each year, a family may spend $20 on dryer sheets. Switch to a set of 3 all natural wool dryer balls for $15 and you'll be investing less than 1 cent/load for the next five years of laundry! An added bonus, dryer balls naturally soften your clothes and can reduce the time it takes to get dry by 25%!
Cora Ball protects our waterways from microfiber pollution by protecting your clothes from shedding in the first place, helping them last longer and reducing the frequency of throwing away threadbare favorites. Over 5+ years of use, Cora Ball is an investment of just 2 cents per load. While it's hard to put a number on it, buying clothes less often is real value for the planet and your wallet!
Basic Laundry | Sustainable Laundry | |||
Individual | Family | Individual | Family | |
Cost/load | $2.45 | $2.45 | $0.95 | $0.95 |
Loads/year | 100 | 300 | 75 | 225 |
Cost/year | $245.00 | $735.00 | $71.25 | $213.75 |
**The numbers used in this example calculation are maximum values for the U.S. Savings will vary depending on your personal starting point.
This Earth Month, get everything you need for smarter laundry with the discounted Sustainable Laundry Bundle. Shop now for your own home or to give a boost to someone you know is ready for the upgrade!
This has been a real eye-opener and we would love to know how much you are saving by incorporating some or all of these sustainable best practices into your laundry routine! Share on social media and tag us with @thecoraball.
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Four generations of women: Great-grandmother (Bubbe) Rozalia, Grandma (Bubbe) Anne, mother Barbara, and little Rachael Z Miller.
The homeland of Rozalia, Jack, and Anna Belsky in then-Russia and now Ukraine.
A photo of the S.S. Madonna, the passenger ship that carried Rozalia, Anna, and innumerable refugees to the New World.
The S.S. Madonna manifest of passengers including Rozalia and Anna Belsky sailing from Constantinople to New York City.
A certificate issued in recognition of Rozalia and Anna Belsky passing through Ellis Island, “joining those courageous men and women who came to this country in search of personal freedom, economic opportunity and a future of hope for their families.”
In 1941, Rozalia became a citizen of the United States of America at the age of 45. When immigrating, her name was altered into Rose and the family name of Belsky became Bell.
In the summer, humpback whales travel to the cold polar waters to fill up on krill, plankton and small fish. Then, when things are getting colder, they migrate to the equatorial regions to mate, give birth and nurse their young in the winter months.
Whales species may be among the biggest animals in the world, but they face man-made threats to their survival in many ways. In modern day, some of those greatest threats include marine debris entanglement and ingestion (NOAA).
Entanglement can occur when a whale is swimming around either working or derelict fishing gear, often traced to the vertical lines connecting crab or lobster pots to their buoys on the water surface. These lines are thought to be too small for whales to see or so small they do not try to avoid them, so if the line gets hooked on a pectoral fin, whales will roll in an attempt to brush it off, but can sometimes accidentally wind the rope around their bodies instead.
In the Humpback Sanctuary in Hawaii, as many as 40 percent of the humpbacks have scars from entanglements. These entanglements can cause significant physical damage to whales if the ropes cut into their skin and create drag through the water that forces the whale to exert more energy, reducing their reserves to successfully migrate long distances and birth healthy young.
Ingested marine debris has been discovered in the bellies of deceased whales, sometimes dozens of pounds and ranging from sandals to plastic grocery bags to unidentifiable microplastics.
If a whale’s belly is filled with indigestible trash, it will have less room to eat its proper food. This problem compounds over time if the whale continues to consume marine debris, which accumulates in their stomach. Without proper nutrition, migration and birthing young becomes more difficult.
As these mighty creatures face real harm from marine debris, we know that we can make a positive difference by changing the status quo on our shores and in our homes. Every effort we make to reduce our consumption of single-use items and take care of our belongings through responsible, secure disposal can help keep trash from finding its way into our waterways and the ocean.
Our team at Cora Ball have created the coraclip as one example of where we can do better in our everyday routine to cut out unnecessary plastic and switch to sustainable, beautiful materials. We were very excited to add sustainable Swedish dishcloths with our humpback whale design to the eco kitchen goods lineup last year, and this is a perfect time to pick some up for your everyday needs.
]]>The Cora Ball team is passionate about protecting our ocean. Co-founders and partners Rachael Z Miller and James R Lyne first founded the nonprofit Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean to launch their mission of preserving a thriving marine ecosystem by tackling marine debris through cleanup, education, research, and solutions development.
During Rachael and James' work with Rozalia Project they heard the first whispers of microfiber pollution. Despite being only whispers, the problem screamed out to them as the first warning signs of a much bigger issue. James and Rachael knew there needed to be a solution everyone could use to make an immediate reduction in microfiber pollution.
Rachael, James and technical designer Brooke Winslow joined together to create Cora Ball and launched on Kickstarter in 2017. Thanks to the enthusiastic support of friends, family, and Ocean Lovers worldwide, the campaign was a success many times over and launched Cora Ball into full-scale production in their home state of Vermont.
The first Cora Balls were shipped to Cora Ball backers fall of 2017 and now, over 100k Cora Balls are in washing machines preventing microfiber pollution and protecting the planet.
Cora Ball’s mission is to protect and conserve our ocean and planet by creating products that reduce waste, use sustainable materials, employ low footprint methods and raise awareness. We operate on the premise that lots of little efforts make a big positive impact.
Rachael Zoe Miller is an expedition scientist, inventor, National Geographic Explorer and Explorers Club Fellow working to protect the ocean. She is the Founder of Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, a nonprofit working on the problem of marine debris, co-inventor/CEO of the Cora Ball and coraclip’s sea life artist. Rachael leads teams on expeditions whose scientific results are published in peer-reviewed journals and education programs that inspire thousands of people of all ages. She has shared her team’s work at several International Marine Debris Conferences, Underwater Intervention, Microfiber Summit at the Parliament in London, the Explorers Club headquarters, as part of the US State Department’s Speaker Program with the US Embassy Helsinki, and TEDx Lowell, to name a few. Rachael captained the 60’ sailing research vessel, American Promise, certified hundreds of people to be sailing instructors, trained Navy SEALS to find unexploded mines using underwater robots, pitched to audiences at Our Ocean and Plastics Europe and mentors young scientists at the New York Harbor School. She lives in Vermont, loves the snow as much as the sea and does her best thinking on skis, bikes or on a surfski.
James Lyne is co-founder and co-inventor of Cora Ball. He is also co-founder of Rozalia Project with Rachael. James has sailed professionally in Olympic and America's Cup campaigns and now coaches for teams such as Quantum Racing, Bella Mente and Windquest. At home in Vermont, he is an enthusiastic surfski and OC1 paddler on the mountain lakes during the summer and fat bike rider in the winter.
Brooke is a co-inventor of Cora Ball and a passionate ocean and lake lover. She grew up sailing in the Pacific Northwest before coming to the East Coast for college and falling in love with Vermont. Destiny brought Brooke to Rozalia Project first as an intern, then as deck ninja and First Mate onboard the Oceanographic Research Vessel, American Promise. Together with James and Rachael, she used her great eye for design and technical skills in CAD with a 3D printer to bring the team's ideas to life. While running Cora Ball logistics behind the scenes, Brooke has been part of Rachael's expedition science team and co-author on published microfiber research. Her favorite days at home in Vermont include long walks with her miniature (120lb) Newfie, Popcorn.
Customer Support extraordinaire! With the patience of a saint, Jarmaine handles shipping errors, curious inquiries, new partner connections and so much more.
]]>The best way to reduce environmental impact and save on energy is to reduce the amount of laundry you do in the first place. Many clothes, like jeans, can be worn multiple times before requiring a wash. Also, spot-cleaning for small stains can increase the life of your garments.
Remember: the washing machine is slowly breaking down fabrics, so doing less laundry will help your clothes last longer.
Water is one of the most costly resources used for laundry. Depending on where you live in the US, you can be spending up to $0.43 per load just on water according the this Energy Star survey. Additionally, in places that are experiencing droughts more frequently, it is imperative to conserve water resources.
Here's how to manage your water use:
The energy used to heat tap water up to the "warm" or "hot" water level is another big energy consumer, costing up to $0.69 each load. Use "cold" or "tap cold" settings and you will also be reducing the amount of fibers shedding off your clothes in the wash. (Even the "cold" setting may increase the water temperature if your tap water is particularly cold.)
Not all detergents are equal. Powder detergent, though not shipping water weight and can be found in cardboard packaging, also causes more fiber shedding in the washing machine than liquid detergent or concentrated detergent sheets.
Natural detergents made without dyes and harsh chemicals cost the same or even less than many of the most well-known brands. The MamaP detergent sheets cost just 20 cents/load (Tide pods are 48+ cents), so it will feel food to make the switch!
DO: check that your detergent is made to work in HE (High Efficiency) washing machines and with both cold and hot water settings.
Ok, we may be biased, but hear us out! Cora Ball not only prevents microfibers from escaping the wash, but it is also reducing fibers shedding from your clothes. This protects your clothes from going threadbare and helps them last longer. Cora Ball lasts for 5+ years (2500+ loads of laundry), and the investment to protect your clothes and the planet is worth 1.6 cents per load.
Electric dryers are a big energy burner and one hour of drying can cost 24-72 cents in the US. Dryers are also big source of microfiber pollution directly into our environment. By hang-drying your laundry, you help them last longer and directly save on your energy bill each month.
Let's be real, not all clothes and home textiles can be hung out to dry and some of us simply don't have the space, time, or weather (we are in Vermont... winter snow, anyone?). Single-use dryer sheets cost about 4 cents each load. Wool dryer balls are a natural, brilliant alternative to single-use dryer sheets to soften your clothes in the tumble dryer, reduce static, speed up your drying cycle. These dryer balls don't wear out, and in 10 years the cost per load will be 0.03 cents (or $0.0003!), a savings of $186!
Decide before you buy to pick the smallest, most sustainable packaging option available. Choose ultra concentrated detergent and a stain soap bar in paperboard packaging instead of the liquid versions that ship water weight in plastic tubes or jugs.
The Cora Ball team selected the best products inside-and-out for our Sustainable Laundry Bundle to make the switch easy and save you money!
]]>Cora Ball is made to last for 5+ years of doing laundry. With an annual 2-person household average of 200 loads of laundry, that equals 4 cents per load. The average number of loads of laundry for a household of 4 is 470 per year, which brings the Cora Ball cost to 1.8 cents per load to cut microfiber pollution by a third and protect your clothes! That's a big deal for our clothes, the ocean and us.
Cora Ball balances ease-of-use and cost. It was picked by consumers as the favorite microfiber mitigation product. Wash bags are limited to just two or three items and require filling for each load. After-market filters capture the most fiber, but cost more ($100-200), require installation in your plumbing, and have the added cost and footprint of replacement filters (recycling programs vary by brand).
Want to maximize your microfiber capture? Use both Cora Ball and a filter! According to the independent testing, Cora Ball is best at reducing the shorter fibers while filters are better at catching long fibers. By using both together, you prevent the maximum pollution while Cora Ball also protects your clothes and potentially reduces the frequency you need to clean or replace the filter.
This bundle of to-go food containers, coraclips, bamboo utensils, and a reusable dishcloth-napkin are everything you need for everyday lunch at school or work, on the road or when hitting the trail.
Know a sustainability champion? It also makes the ideal gift for college students headed off to school this fall!
The Sustainable Picnic Bundle includes:
Do you ever find yourself on a spontaneous lunch out with friends hesitating over the single use utensils counter? We have, and it doesn't feel good! With this complete set of bamboo fork, knife, spoon and chopsticks, you can breath easier knowing you are prepared for every culinary situation you find yourself in.
Features:
Salads and sandwiches? You're covered. Leftovers? Absolutely. Pack your lunch in these recycled food storage containers. Perfect as a sustainable gift for students, on the road, or at work.
Soft, durable, absorbent, and 100% compostable!
Ditch single-use paper towels, napkins and plastic sponges. A single Swedish dishcloth saves you money and scores you all the eco-friendly style points.
*All discounts are active 1200 AM- 1159 PM Eastern Time each day.
]]>We now offer two new sustainable laundry essentials to go with your Cora Ball - all in one place. Get the compete bundle for your own home or as the ultimate gift set for sustainability champions in your life!
The Sustainable Laundry Bundle includes:
One Cora Ball
Three 100% wool dryer balls
One Meliora laundry soap stick for stain removal
Toss a set of these 100% wool balls into the dryer to soften your clothes naturally while reducing static and wrinkles without wasteful dryer sheets.
The soap stick is simple and it works so well! This product is so effective it's been known to save full loads of toddler laundry and get mildew out of shower curtains.
Typical stain remover comes in plastic, often non-recyclable packaging. In liquid form, you are paying for a high percentage of water, not just the product. Mix it up and remove your laundry stains with the soap stick!
Simply wet the fabric and rub the soap stick onto the stained area, then wash as usual.
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Photo Credit: Tegan Maxey
The blue whale is the largest whale in the world and the dwarf sperm whale is the smallest. With lifespans that can be over 100 years, long gestation periods and low birth rates, there are many dangers facing whale species all over the world.
Some commonly-discussed threats to whales include fishing gear entanglement, marine debris ingestion, competing with commercial fishing for food and ship strikes. However, the tiniest threat is one of the most important: microfiber.
To explain how microfiber is a threat to whales, we first need to talk about persistent organic pollutants, or POPs. POPs are a class of pollution that can be made from natural processes, but are found in the environment primarily from human industry (including DDT and PCBs). These pollutants get into the environment from poor waste management practices or through the course of their use. When the effects of POPs were discovered and widely publicized, like in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, many were banned or regulated to reduce their release into the environment. However, the crux of POPs is the first “P”: persistent. Despite bans and regulations across the world, POPs of many origins are still leaking out of landfills and circulating around the ocean because they are very stable compounds and do not break down, or do so very slowly over decades or longer.
Now, you may be wondering why we shouldn’t be more concerned about the presence of POPs if they are everywhere in the ocean. If you scooped out a bucket of sea water, the concentration of POPs would most likely be undetectable, as would be the case with most ocean samples. That’s where plastic microfibers and other plastic marine debris comes into play.
Plastic is made from oil and has carbon molecule structures that attract the similar carbon structures in POP molecules. This attractive force is called oleophilicity and behaves like a magnet. Once in contact with each other, the POPs adhere to the microplastic surface like a sticker, collecting more and more over time as the plastic gets swirled around in the ocean currents.
Problems start brewing when sea creatures consume the plastic pieces covered in POPs. The POPs transfer from the surface of the plastic into the tissues of the sea creatures, even if the plastic itself is passed out of their digestive system. POPs get stored into body fat and will not metabolize out of animals in excretions. In small amounts, POPs may not cause any metabolic harm (like plankton or fish feeding only on plankton), but sea creatures higher on the food chain (like Orcas that hunt seals or predatory fish) that consume many more smaller creatures or other predators already containing elevated amounts of POPs will experience bioaccumulation, where the POP concentrations are multiplied many times over in their bodies - approximately 10x the levels of their prey.
POPs are endocrine disruptors and, in high enough concentrations, can cause metabolic and reproductive harm and even death. A prime example is the decline in Orca whale reproduction and calf survival. This trend has been linked to high POPs concentrations (specifically PCBs) in their blubber. Most concerning is that since the POPs are found in the fats of whales, this extends to the mother’s milk and calves are subjected to sudden high levels of POPs in their first year of life and the resulting mortality rate is sadly high. (Guardian, 2018)
While POPs and bioaccumulation create greater problems of endocrine disruption the higher you go in the food chain, this also means that even small improvements in the lowest level have compounding positive effects!
Our team is always optimistic about our ability to control the parts of a problem within our grasp to make progress toward meaningful change. Each garment in a load of laundry can create tens to hundreds of thousands of pieces of microfiber that end up in our wastewater and in our environment. With the simple act of tossing Cora Ball in our washing machines, we can decrease microfiber pollution by 31% and reduce the chances of POPs piggybacking their way into the food chain.
Join us and help keep our ocean cleaner for the plankton, fish, birds, and whales, one load of laundry at a time!
]]>Puffins are a migrating pelagic bird species that are born in nurseries on sub-arctic rocky coastlines. They travel north to arctic waters to forage for the duration of their time as juveniles and years later return to their birth places as adults to breed the next generation, then go back to the arctic for the winter.
Males will court a female partner, often the same partner over the years, to earn the chance to mate. The puffin pairs nest together to first protect their eggs, then the hatchlings throughout nesting season. The parents take turns to go out to sea and bring back mouthfuls of small fish for their chicks to eat and grow.
Photo Credit: Walker Golder/Audubon
For centuries in the Gulf of Maine, the fish of choice to feed puffin chicks are small forage fish, especially Atlantic herring. Menhaden and Atlantic herring are schooling fish that form massive bait balls to defend themselves from predators, which range from sea birds to the endangered Right whale.
However, climate change and industrial fishing have severely damaged fish populations. Massive harvesting ships work in pairs to scoop up whole schools of fish in one big swoop. The fish are processed into products like Omega-3 supplements, dog food, and ground up in feed for farm animals, or packed into tins for grocery stores.
Recent successful legislation has taken small steps to reduce commercial fishing of forage fish, and bans near-shore purse seine fishing, but more need to be done (Audubon, 2021). Climate change has driven increasing water temperatures in the Gulf of Maine faster than any other part of the ocean and the cold-water Atlantic herring are staying farther away, so puffins, fishermen, and all the other dependent seabirds and predators are competing over fewer fish. (Jackson, 2022)
Puffins evolved to depend on the small fish and are left in the lurch looking for alternative food. In increasing observations, puffin caretakers have reported that the parent puffins have been coming back with a new type of small fish more commonly found in warm waters to the south, the butterfish(Audubon, 2019). But, butterfish are too wide and too big for the puffin chicks to swallow. (NPR, 2021)
In order to preserve the keystone menhaden stocks for puffins, whales, seabirds, seals, and other predators, here are some actions you can take to turn the tide:
With these few changes, we can help reduce the demand for Atlantic herring, menhaden, and other forage fish that are vital to their ecosystems.
An additional step for those who live in towns, cities, or states with forage fish industries: contact your local and state law officials to express your concerns about climate change and the ecological impact of monopolizing forage fish for human consumption and use. Change may not happen quickly, but it will only happen if we take the first step and make our voices heard.
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I vividly remember: my mom taking a break and watching our belongings on the beach while my dad, sister, and I continued to snorkel. Just eight years old, I was only starting to get comfortable snorkeling with the large mask, breathing through a rubber tube and heavy flippers on my feet. Up to this moment, I had never been brave enough to venture away from my parents’ side to take in the sights of colorful tropical fish. With growing confidence, I did not know exactly where my sister and dad were, but did not worry.
There were two large green sea turtles about 15 feet under the water next to the artificial waterfall. Gathered around were a dozen snorkelers admiring the slow moving creatures. I, myself, stayed well away while I watched. Although slow, they looked bigger than me, so I gave them ample room.
Done gazing at the sea turtles after several minutes, I flap my clumsy flippers and feel them connect with something hard. I know I’m nowhere near rocks or the ground and, mind you, this lagoon is attached to a resort and has an unreasonably high density of people and paddling boats. I thought I kicked a fellow snorkeler, in which case I should apologize. Or maybe I kicked a kayak, in which case I should make sure I wasn’t about to get whacked with a paddle by an inattentive tourist.
I turn around. And right behind me I see the hulking, scaly legs and shell of the biggest turtle I have ever seen, far closer than I ever wanted to be. I. Freaked. Out.
From the beach, my mom recalls hearing a garbled scream explode from my snorkel and looking up to see me breach out of the water like a humpback as I blasted my way back to safety on land. She likes to say I walked on water that day and I will never forget the ninja turtle that snuck up on me and taught me to always respect ocean creatures’ space.
It took years after that traumatizing experience to tolerate being in the water with a sea turtle without being anxious the whole time. When I was fourteen and living with my family on our forty-foot sailboat, I finally put my trauma to rest getting to know both the land tortoises of the Galapagos Islands and the friendly, commuting sea turtles (pictured above) who passed our anchored boat each day.
Author: Brooke Winslow, Cora Ball co-inventor
]]>Follow @thecoraball on Instagram, post a picture of your cleanup, and tag us in your photo. We will DM you with a code for a free pack of Bubbe Clips to go along with your Cora Ball order - a free pack per Cora Ball!
Offer ends October 13th.
You can cleanup on your own or with a group. For those of you in Vermont, Rozalia Project is hosting the Burlington, VT cleanup this Saturday, Sept 25th. Sign up for the Burlington cleanup on the Rozalia Project Facebook page or visit the ICC website at the link below.
Find a shoreline and start your cleanup |
We have stayed committed to making Cora Ball and Bubbe Clip as sustainable as possible since day one. That means having a sustainable supply chain of material, packaging, and partners.
Cora Ball is made with pre- and post- consumer recycled material and is 100% recyclable with our take-back program where we can grind up old Cora Balls, melt down the pieces, and make all new Cora Balls! Bubbe Clip and coraclips are made from sustainably harvested wood, but we didn’t stop there.
All of our consumer and wholesale packaging is recyclable. From the paper packing tape to the Kraft paper info card, we don’t ship with plastic. This past year we further refined our info materials to reduce footprint and unnecessary material!
Going beyond what you, the customer, receives when Cora Balls are shipped, we also pay attention to the packaging when we have to ship completed parts from our manufacturer to our assembly/fulfillment team. To generate as little waste as possible during this part of the supply chain, we collaborate with Concept2, a Vermont-based maker of excellent fitness equipment. Concept2 has been incredibly generous offering space on trucks running between our shared manufacturing and assembly partners, an hour apart but still in Vermont!
Our assembly and fulfillment team sends empty Cora Ball parts boxes back to the manufacturers on Concept2’s return trucks to be reused and filled with new raw Cora Ball materials.
When you support Cora Ball, Bubbe Clip and other small, sustainable product brands who go the extra mile, you are supporting a whole connected ecosystem of sustainable, low-footprint partners behind the scenes! Thank you for your love for the ocean and for Cora Ball!
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Updated 4/15/22. Click here to jump to the newest section.
You’d think this would be an easy definition, but there are some subtleties. On one hand, you’ve likely heard of microfiber towels, cleaning tools or clothing. That is not necessarily, and certainly not exclusively, what we are talking about here. For the purposes of this primer and when thinking about microfiber pollution, we are talking about pieces of fiber, less than 5mm in length (5mm is approximately half the width of your pinky nail) that have detached from or broken off whatever they were part of (your shirt, a towel, a rug, a tarp, even from car tires) and are loose in the environment. Their diameter is less important, but they range from something you can see to so small they are only visible with magnification. The materials from which microfibers come are as diverse as the materials that exist on the planet from synthetics such as polyester, nylon, spandex, etc.; to naturally-derived materials such as cotton or wool. Another term to describe what we are talking about is “fiber fragmentation.”
Image 1: Magnified images of various textiles with different weaves and materials. All are vulnerable to fiber fragmentation.
Note: this is not just about plastic! Why do we care about naturally-derived microfibers at-large in the environment? Unless something is certified organic down to the dyes, it is possible that it has associated chemicals that are harmful to our environment. The chemicals are added as dyes and to set the dyes, wrinkle releasers and optical brighteners. Have you ever heard of anyone drinking wrinkle releaser? Nope, we haven’t either and we don’t think anyone should. In fact over-the-counter wrinkle-releasers have warnings like “Do not spray on face” and “Do not take internally.” For those reasons and more you will read about below, we think it’s important to include ALL manmade fibers in this discussion and keep the ocean and our public waterways free of everything that is part of our clothing manufacturing process and laundry routines. |
The creation of microfiber/fiber fragmentation occurs when we wear, wash and dry our clothes. Essentially, it is potentially happening all the time to all of the textiles we use and wear. That said, the washing machine is a significant creator of microfibers.
An average of 700,000 fibers per 6kg of clothing are escaping our homes and flowing out of our drains every load of laundry (Napper, 2016). |
Image 2: Washing machines do not have filters meant to stop microfibers and dryer lint traps are inadequate.
Rachael Miller and her colleague Professor Kirsten Kapp of Central Wyoming College investigated the expulsion of microfiber from dryer vents. They found an alarming amount of microfiber escapes the built-in filter to deposit on the ground - up to 30 feet from the exhaust and likely much farther if carried in the wind (Kapp and Miller, 2021).
Our first-hand experience has taught us that there is a significant amount of microfibers coming off clothing as they are being worn and used. Microfiber research is one of the more difficult types of research to carry out. It’s not because there are harsh chemicals or fragile equipment involved. The reason is because of microfiber contamination shedding off researcher’s clothing. In our efforts to identify the existing environmental presence of microfiber pollution, there must be painstaking measures taken to protect samples throughout collection and processing.
The short answer is everywhere. Microfibers have been found in samples in every body of water, from lakes, rivers and ocean to the most remote areas of the arctic and deep sea. Here are some papers that look at microplastics in a wide variety of ecosystems and geographies: Dong et al., 2020, Alfaro-Núñez et al., 2021, Ross et al., 2021, Barrett et al., 2020.
Our own team has been investigating microfiber and microplastic pollution in rivers. On our expedition on the Hudson River, led by Cora Ball founder and co-inventor Rachael Miller, we found microfibers high up in the Adirondacks all the way to where the Hudson reaches the Atlantic Ocean - even where no one lives (Miller et. al., 2017). The length of the Snake and Lower Columbia rivers were sampled for microplastic and microfiber by Rozalia Project guest scientist and partner, Professor Kirsten Kapp with similar results, finding microfiber pollution in rural and urban areas of the rivers. (Kapp and Yeatmen, 2018).
Image 4: Heat map of microplastic concentrations measured on our Mountains to the Sea expedition on the Hudson River. (Miller et al., 2017)
Scientists are also looking at microfibers in oceanic surface waters. A global characterization (Suaria et.al., 2020) sampled in 6 major ocean basins and found that the majority of fibers found in the ocean are cellulosic (most often cotton). This demonstrates a surprising persistence of natural microfibers - and another reason we keep naturally-derived fibers on our keep-out-of-the-ocean list.
Synthetic microfibers in the marine environment: A review on their occurrence in seawater and sediments summarized the situation by saying “microfibers are present worldwide in marine sediments and seawater” and “[microfibers] represent the most important percentage of microplastics, up to 100% [of a sample]” (Gago et.al., 2018) |
It appears that, in most cases, when scientists have looked for microfiber in sea creatures, they have been found. Studies include mussels in coastal and freshwater environments (Christoforou et.al., 2020 and Doucet et.al., 2021), crabs (Watts et.al., 2015), plankton (Cole et.al., 2013) and fin fish (Rochman, 2016).
The studies above established the presence of microplastic, mostly microfiber in a variety of species. In order to observe potential impacts of ingestion, scientists are studying creatures in labs.* The result of consuming the microplastic is varied:
A combination of these factors has resulted in a measured reduction of reproductive viability (fewer offspring). |
*Important to note: in lab studies, microfiber/microplastic concentrations are often greater than in typical environmental conditions.
Image 5: Fluorescent microplastics photographed within plankton. (Cole et al, 2013)
Not only are microfibers being found in the environment and sea creatures, they are being found in the foods we eat at home. Microplastics are in honey, salt, seafood, beer, tap water (Orb Media) and bottled water (Mason et.al., 2018). Seafood tested in a California fish market found microplastics in 25% of finfish and 33.7% of shellfish. (Rochman et. al., 2015)
A 2019 report estimated that the average person consumes the microplastic equivalent of a credit card every week, the majority coming from drinking water (World Wildlife Fund, 2019).
Image 6: Microplastics have been found in tap and bottled water, honey, salt, beer and in many seafoods.
Scientists are finding microfiber in human feces, blood, and deep in our lungs. The presence of microfiber and microplastic in our bodies has not been conclusively linked to any disease or illness, but we know based the lab studies on microplastic and aquatic animals, that there is a potential for harm
In 2018 the first group of scientists examined human excrement and found microplastic in the samples provided by eight volunteers for the pilot study (Parker, 2018).
Another pilot study this year revealed that microplastic is being transported throughout or bodies in our blood (Carrington, 2022). This has prompted many more questions by the public and the medical field to investigate how the microplastic may impact our organs and cell functions.
Microplastics found in 11 of 13 lung tissue samples raise similar questions about what long-term microplastic exposure and accumulation in our lungs could mean for chronic disease development (Uildriks, 2022).
Take action against microfiber pollution by taking control of your own laundry. Use a Cora Ball to make a difference in your home or at a laundromat. Cora Ball addresses all clothes in the load while your clothes get cleaned just like normal.
While reducing microfiber pollution by 31%, Cora Ball is also preventing microfibers from breaking off clothes in the first place (Napper et. al., 2020). |
After-market washing machine filters can be installed as part of your washing machine plumbing. These kinds of filters address all of the water, and must be emptied often. Use it in combination with Cora Ball to protect your clothes and stop the highest percentage of microfiber at the same time.
Work with brands. Communicate with your favorite clothing brands that you’d like to see more resilient clothing. This can influence brands’ manufacturing and purchasing decisions and challenge their suppliers to do better too.
There are no built-in filters for washing machines available on the market and we have seen that dryer lint traps are also not adequate for preventing microfiber pollution. Speak up and ask the big companies to change the status quo. There’s an opportunity for a small shift at a high level to make a huge change to the problem of microfiber pollution.
And don't forget to spread the word! Tell your friends, family and community what is happening and how they, too, can be part of the solution.
It is now well-known that washing machines contribute to microfiber pollution when tiny fibers that shed from clothing and home textiles wash out the washing machine’s drain water. New research, conducted by Cora Ball founder and co-inventor Rachael Miller and microfiber scientist at Central Wyoming College-Jackson and published in PLOS ONE, establishes “that electric clothes dryers emit masses of microfiber directly into the environment. Microfiber emissions vary based on dryer type, age, vent installation and lint trap characteristics” and concludes that, “dryers should be included in discussions when considering strategies, policies and innovations to prevent and mitigate microfiber pollution”.
You probably recognize Rachael's name as one of the co-inventors and CEO of Cora Ball/Bubbe Clip and co-founder of Rozalia Project. Co-author on this paper is Professor Kirsten Kapp, a wildlife biologist, science teacher, guest scientist on Rozalia Project's expedition vessel, American Promise and more who is also looking at the problem of microplastic (she is also a fellow sailor, skier and longtime friend of Rachael's).
This first-of-its-kind study, funded in part by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (Grant # 2P20GM103432), links dryer vent emissions with microfiber found in the outdoor environment. Rachael and Kirsten realized that dryers are a contributor to the problem, in fact Rachael started speaking publicly about that in October of 2016. The issue was that there was very little research about dryers and microfiber and none to investigate emissions to the environment or compare total microfiber emitted from the vent and caught in lint traps across multiple machines. We needed more than just observation to be heard. Doing this work over dirt, however, would be a time-consuming and tricky task having to separate microfibers from soil and other organic matter found in terrestrial samples. The game-changer for Rachael and Kirsten is that they realized that if they did the experiment during the winter, they could use the snow as the terrestrial substrate. Since snow turns to water, and filtering water samples is so much easier than soil...that is what they did.
The sampling team, which included Cora Ball and Bubbe Clip co-inventor, Brooke Winslow, used bright pink polyester fleece blankets in two different household dryers which made identifying the fibers from the experiment very easy (neither households had any fuchsia textiles in use). They set up 14 identical plots outside dryer vents in the two locations and post dryer event, collected snow from a 1' x 1' and 1" deep area at each plot. They found that microfibers that flow out the dryer air vent land beyond the area directly under the vent. While the majority of fibers from the blanket fell within 5’ of the vent, fibers were observed in 5 test plots 30’ from the vent. Results suggest that wind may be a factor.
Heat map showing distribution and concentration of fibers from the test blanket in the 14 plots that were sampled. The bigger and darker the circle, the more fibers were found at that test location. An important note, the extent of this study was 30’ from the vent, we do not know exactly how far these fibers travel, and how much they contribute to atmospheric microfiber pollution during transport.
In terms of the amount of microfiber released by dryers, this study found that a total of 105 - 209mg of lint, including fibers, is released from one polyester fleece blanket into the environment (outdoor air) via electric clothes dryer exhaust after three dryer cycles. Because this is one of the first studies to investigate dryer emissions into the air and surrounding ground, it was done without pre-washing with washing machines in order to reduce the variables washing machines would have introduced. Rather, the blankets were soaked before drying. Accordingly, this paper does not make an estimate about the total amount of fiber dryers might be contributing to the environment.
Variations in dryer design, age, and/or installation are a factor in determining the amount of fibers emitted into the environment. There were several differences in the dryers used in this study, most notably: age, length of ducting and size of lint trap screen. The older dryer with longer ducting produced less microfiber emissions. The researchers suspect that is due to fiber buildup in the walls of the ducting. The dryer with the larger lint trap screen (approx. 3 times greater, also the older model) caught more lint than the dryer with the smaller lint trap screen. The authors hope that these initial findings encourage additional studies investigating fiber buildup in ducting, and identifying characteristics that make lint trap assemblies most effective as well as how dryer settings, fill levels, in-drum devices and other design parameters affect both shedding rates and volume of fibers that are emitted with the dryer exhaust.
Fiber captured from dryer exhaust vents. Each petri dish shows the fiber emitted into the air by one polyester fleece blanket that was soaked and then dried in an electric clothes dryer for one complete dry cycle (low heat). A-C represent location 1, and D-F represent location 2. The amount of fibers emitted decreased with each cycle. This is a similar pattern seen with microfiber emissions in washing machines and something that needs further investigation to best estimate total emissions from electric clothes dryers.
While we learn more about the mechanisms, designs and settings that cause shedding in dryers, we suggest that you only wash and dry when necessary. Where possible, line dry or use an indoor clothes rack. We know that lots of little make a big and the Cora Ball Team will always keep our community informed about the latest science, best laundry practices and solutions that have an impact.
The authors chose PLOS ONE open access in order to make these data accessible to all and encourage additional studies that will both focus on helping consumers reduce their microfiber emissions from dryers by learning about best practices in settings and help the laundry industry do their part in working to reduce microfiber emissions that come from their machines through design, engineering and manufacturing. The authors believe there will be multiple solutions to the problem of microfiber pollution and the development of those solutions starts with understanding the problem. Both authors are available to discuss their findings and additional research that will expedite the design and implementation of solutions and laundering strategies that will reduce microfiber pollution to protect our ocean and planet.
The paper can be found at this link:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239165
Rachael Z Miller: Rachael Zoe Miller is an expedition scientist, inventor, National Geographic Explorer and Explorers Club Fellow protecting the ocean. She is Founder of Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean and co-inventor of the Cora Ball, the world’s first microfiber-catching laundry ball. Rachael leads expeditions yielding results published in peer-reviewed journals (including a first investigation of the Hudson River from the Adirondack Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean) and education programs that inspire thousands. She’s presented worldwide including TedX and The Explorer’s Club. Rachael captains the 60’ sailing research vessel, American Promise, certified hundreds of sailing instructors, trained Navy SEALS to use underwater robots, and mentors young scientists at the NY Harbor School.
Kirsten Kapp: Kirsten Kapp is a biology professor at Central Wyoming College- Jackson, where she teaches a variety of science courses and involves students in undergraduate research. She received her B.S. degree from the University of Vermont in Wildlife and Fisheries Management and a M.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development. Her interest in microplastic pollution began in 2014 when she joined co-author Rachael Z. Miller and the Rozalia Project as a guest scientist aboard American Promise, a research vessel that sails along the coast of Maine focusing on marine debris. Since then she has involved her students in research addressing local anthropogenic debris and microplastic pollution, including a first investigation of microplastic pollution in the Snake River from Yellowstone National Park to the Pacific Ocean.
As lovers of data, we are always excited to share the results of the latest Cora Ball testing. Lead-author Dr. Imogen Napper and the International Marine Litter Research Unit in the School of Biological and Marine Sciences at University of Plymouth tested the efficacy of consumer solutions to microfiber pollution, including Cora Ball. The results of the research were published in the peer-reviewed journal, Science of the Total Environment, July 2020.
Read on for the highlights!
This and other papers conclude that there are many strategies we can take advantage of to minimize the amount of microfibers shed in our washing machines. Some are simple habit changes, such as washing less often, washing with ¾ to full loads, using cold water and low spin cycle speeds where possible and using standard wash settings rather than the “delicate” cycle, which uses more water. Adding a Cora Ball into your laundry routine can further reduce the amount of microfiber pollution by an average of 31%, a dramatic reduction. Combining a Cora Ball with an after-market external filter would both reduce the amount of microfiber shed by your clothes and textiles and stop the greatest amount of microfiber from entering our public waterways. “Therefore, an effective strategy [to prevent microfiber pollution] would be using a combination of less aggressive washing cycles and adding washing machine filters/in-drum devices” (Napper et. al. 2020).
For more information about the results of this study, please get in touch. We are excited about these excellent results and about helping everyone who wears and washes clothes be part of the solution to microfiber pollution!
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