Sponsor
This research was funded in part by U.S. National Science Foundation NSF-EnvS Grant #2115447. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. Additional portions of this project have been generously funded by the Ed and Olive Bushby Foundation in Environmental Science & Management.
Published In
Microplastics and Nanoplastics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-6-2025
Subjects
Microplastics, Microfibers
Abstract
Among emerging contaminants, microplastics (MPs) are of particular concern due to their ubiquity across environments and the unique challenges posed by attempted removal. In-line washing machine filters are one potential tool for preemptively preventing a category of MPs from entering waterways. A sample of registered voters and environmental interest groups in Oregon were asked about their general knowledge and concerns surrounding microplastics, as well as their willingness to pay for high-efficiency washing machine filters. Findings show that less than a quarter of all respondents would be willing to pay full price for a high-efficiency filter, indicating a limited-scale early adopter program may be a more feasible implementation option. Up to 20% more people may support if part of the cost were to be covered by a government subsidy. Understanding consumer knowledge, characteristics, and willingness to pay (WTP) for filters across demographics can be particularly beneficial to researchers and policymakers looking to engage early adopters for this potential solution to the ongoing issue of MPs.
Rights
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1186/s43591-025-00119-8
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43226
Citation Details
Gannon, A., Granek, E. F., Nielsen-Pincus, M., & Harkins, L. (2025). Perceptions about potential microplastic interventions: a study on knowledge, concerns, and willingness to pay. Microplastics and Nanoplastics, 5(1).
