This year, I am buying everyone a ball for Christmas. And I am crazy excited about it.

I am buying everybody a Cora ball.

Now, I hate to spoil the surprise, but if you want to buy someone a physical gift OR a gift that could actually help save our planet, I can't think of anything better. I am not making any money off this post, I am really just this excited about the idea.

So what the heck is one of these things?

Cora Ball's go in your washing machine with every load of laundry. They suck up the microfiber plastic waste that is shedding off your clothes, into the machine, and out into our water sources. We know now that all of these tiny fibers, the size of one piece of glitter, are a massive problem for our oceans and our bodies. You can read all about it here.

We now ingest about a credit card's worth of plastic a month; most of that is plastic shed off in clothing. It's too small to notice, but we can see it adds up. When you consider that there are connections between plastics and hormonal problems, endocrine issues, and even cancer, those tiny shreds off our leggings become a big deal.

There's a ton of responsibility to go around for this, and most of it is clothing manufacturers' faults. There should not be plastic-based synthetic clothes on the market. There should also be a filter in every single washing machine to keep these microfibers out of our water.  Your washing machine manufacturer could solve this problem, but we have to let them know we notice.

A couple of products- the Cora Ball and the Guppyfriend bag are the ones I hear about the most (but they aren't the only ones by far)- will do the work of a filter and trap microplastics before they hit our water sources.

If every washing machine had one of these in it, it could dramatically decrease the amount of plastic dumped into our water on a daily basis. But for that to work, it would have to become as normal as detergent or dryer sheets.

So this year, I am buying these for everybody. My plan is basically to buy a bunch in bulk and hand them out. If everyone who cared about the environment gave one of these filter products as gifts (or even just bought one for themselves), we could take a huge chunk out of this real and terrifying problem.

In most cases, I don't think we can buy our way out of environmental problems, and I don't think this will solve it completely, but I think we can slow down the dump of plastic into our water, and this is one way to do it. We can't control what our family and friends choose for clothing (so we can't keep plastic out of their wardrobes- they may just love leggings), but we can help them EASILY keep that plastic out of waterways.

So what the heck do you write in a card when giving a weird gift like this?

1. Wish them a happy holiday
2. Acknowledge this is a really weird gift.
3. Explain what it is. Let them know they are eating credit cards worth of plastic.
4. Explain how easy it is to throw it in your laundry.
5. Talk about how you love them (and maybe how it's cool to be on the planet-saving team with them).

If you think it's a particularly hard sell, tell them it makes laundry softer too or something. Kidding. Sort of.

Will you get some weird looks? Oh definitely, but it will be memorable. If you have any particularly tough family members who you know won't use it, then skip them. But if you think just maybe, your loved one could make use of that ball, then it is a gift for everyone, not just the individual. It is also a gift to them because they get the warm fuzzy feeling of doing something good without investing any time or money. That's pretty awesome.


So, it's a weird one, but it is totally my plan. What gifts have you given that are good for the environment? What are you excited to gift this year?

We can see that our planet is hurting. From climate crisis to plastic waste, many of these problems seem so huge that we couldn't possibly make a difference. It's not true. By getting involved, using our voice, and supporting the people on the front lines, we can help. 

Each week, we share a few simple ways to get involved and help. None of these steps take a ton of time, but they do make a difference. 




Microplastics have transformed our oceans and our own diets. Tiny pieces of plastic, about the size of one piece of glitter, shed off of our plastic-based synthetic clothes every time we wash them by the thousands. These fibers are washed out into our water sources and the oceans. These pieces may seem insignificant, but in such overwhelming numbers (trillions), we now eat and drink about the equivalent of a credit card every week.

This is a huge environmental crisis that most people have never heard of. But rest assured, all that plastic consumption will effect our health and our lifespans. But we can do something about it.

There are lots of things we can do as individuals- STOP buying any clothes made of synthetic fabrics, use a cora ball or filter in the washing machine we use, and tell your friends about microplastics! These are all important.

That said, we know that collective action makes a big difference. Here are some quick and easy ideas to help fight microplastics in the system, not just in your home.

1. Embrace the Filter or Cora Ball 

(and Ask your Washing Machine Company to Do it too)

There are now filters and balls out there that are meant to collect these plastic mircofibers in your washing machine before they move out into the water sources. A few recent studies have shown that these do work, so if you have any plastic in your wardrobe, this can help. We all need to work towards the goal of the plastic-free wardrobe, but this is a good first step to take for yourself (and maybe everyone you have to give gifts to in the near future).

That said, if we can now see that filters and balls can make a difference in keeping microplastics out of water sources, it is time to put pressure on washing machine companies to incorporate something like this into every washing machine they manufacture. Even better, they could retrofit something and send it out to the people who have bought their machines.

So, this week might be a good time to write the company that made your washing machine and ask them to add microfiber filters to their designs. Need some help doing it? Just use this letter as a template.

2. Join up with the Story of Stuff Project

The Story of Stuff is amazing, and you may have seen their video about microfiber pollution. They are pushing for legislation in California to stop microfiber pollution, and they can use your signature. You can sign their petition here.

Sign up for the Story of Stuff Project updates and to hear when you can help with a signature or getting the word out. This group is one of my favorites, and they are doing all sorts of good work. They are one of the only major groups to address this problem so far.

3. Make a Helpful Suggestion to Greenpeace

As I mentioned, most of the major environmental groups aren't dealing with microplastics yet. We need a few things to happen:

- Ban the manufacture and selling of plastic fabrics
- Require all washing machines to be made with a plastic filter

You could try to do this through the companies first, but if they aren't willing to do the right thing, this is urgent enough to require legislation.

This, to me, sounds like the perfect job for Greenpeace. They are currently on a plastic mission, specifically confronting the major corporations contributing to the problem (looking at you, Nestle and Coke). In all that awesomeness, they haven't touched on the microfiber problem yet. You can write them to ask where that investment is at. If you are a member or already give them money, you should definitely speak up and help get this on their radar.

4. Write your Favorite Brand

As companies try to keep up with the constant demand and low prices of fast fashion, they use plastic-based clothing more and more. This is unacceptable. If you notice that you can't shop your favorite brand and avoid plastics, write to tell them how disappointed you are. Tell them they have to stop using plastic fabrics.

Need a template to do this? I wrote you one! Switch up the wording to fit the brand you want to approach, and send it on their facebook, twitter, or email. Call customer service. Just put a stink up, and relatively little effort can have a major effect!



How are you stopping microplastics in our water this week? Every little step or action we take creates ripples. Every positive ripple can turn into a wave. Help us save the world!