Start Protecting the Ocean and Your Clothes Today

Cora Ball is proven by science to prevent 31% of microfiber pollution from washing machines, both by tangling lost fibers before they can escape AND by reducing shedding off our clothes in the first place. This helps our clothes last longer and protects our food, wildlife, and the ocean. Let's get started!

Cora Ball laundry ball washing machine microfiber preventing laundry ball protecting clothes and the ocean

1. Toss, or drop, your CORA BALL in your washing machine.

It is that simple. The Cora Ball is safe to use in any washing machine, front loader, top loaders (with or without a center spindle), a hybrid, or whatever you have that washes your clothes.

2. READ THIS, your lace will thank you.

The Cora Ball works best with your everyday clothes. Please separate your delicates, knits, fine fabrics, anything with tassels, fraying threads or spaghetti straps. There is a chance that these clothes, fabrics, threads or straps work their way into the stalks and wrap, pull or get damaged. Just keep your Cora Ball on the shelf when you wash these fabrics and delicate garments.

If something, like a thin strap, does wrap in your stalks, carefully unwrap. Unless it was made of lace or extremely delicate fabric or had fraying threads, it will be fine.

3. Clean your CORA BALL.

Cleaning is easy and similar to cleaning a hairbrush. When you see fuzz/lint balls that are big enough to grab, simply pull them out and throw them in the trash bin (we are working on finding a way to upcycle or recycle them, until then just do the same thing with this lint that you do with your dryer lint).

Cleaning your Cora Ball

Frequency: it will take some time, weeks even, for you to see the fuzz/lint (see below for what to expect). Whether you see fiber in your Cora Ball or not, your Cora Ball is still working by preventing microfiber from breaking off your clothing. We recommend having a look every bunch of washes and when you see a big fuzz/lint ball, take it out. Don't worry about cleaning your Cora Ball completely. Little tangles of hair and fiber will attract more hair and fiber and grow big enough for you to grab easily.

4. Know your fuzz/lint quotient and how much microfiber your laundry system and clothing is likely to produce and how much fiber your Cora Ball is likely to collect.

There are a multitude of factors that determine both how many microfibers your clothes produce and how much of that fuzz/lint your Cora Ball is likely to collect. They range from the type of washing machine and soap you use, to the settings, water temperature and even the hard or softness of your water - we’ve counted over 60 variables that are related to potential shed rate and Cora Ball efficiency.

Because the problem of microfiber pollution caused by laundry is a relatively new one, related science is ongoing with regular updates. Here are the latest ways you can reduce the amount of microfiber produced in your home:

Wash less often
Use cold water
Wash with a 3/4 to full load
Use a liquid detergent (rather than a powdered detergent)
When it's time to replace or select a washing machine, front loaders cause less shedding than top loaders
If you have hard water in your home, using a softening system will have multiple benefits, one of which is to reduce shedding in your washing machine

For even more ways to reduce your laundry footprint, learn more about the Sustainable Laundry Bundle.

cora ball laundry ball sustainable microfiber catcher and dryer balls detergent sheets and stain stick

We have good people helping us learn

Since this is a unique solution, we are still learning about best practices. We have a huge team of people, our Innovation Team from Kickstarter (is that you?), who is helping us develop and improve the information on this page. We have also compiled this easy-to-do survey if you would like to contribute to the body of data of how the Cora Ball is used. Stay tuned as we refine the Cora Ball best practices and, together, protect our ocean, lakes and rivers, one load of laundry at a time.

For even more information beyond these basics, check out the FAQs.