An environmental technology firm has launched a microplastic recycling facility in Cornwall.
Cleaner Seas Group's (CSG) centre in Bude, which received a £1m grant for the project, takes cartridges which it sells to consumers and industrial laundries to attach to their washing machines.
When the cartridge is full of microfibres, plastics which are shed from clothes in the wash, it is sent by freepost back to CSG.
Microfibres are then extracted at the centre from the cartridges and turned into usable materials for construction, packaging, including new domestic cartridges, said the firm.
The project has received nearly £1m in funding from the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Good Growth Programme, supported by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Dave Miller, chief executive of CSG, said the "plug and play" battery-powered filter, which costs £129.99, could be fitted to a washing machine without the need of a plumber.
Each cartridge lasts for about 100 washes and consumers can then buy another cartridge which goes into the filter for about £14.
CSG, which was created in 2017, had been selling the filters since 2020, said Mr Miller.
Production of filters so far was "in the thousands", he said.
