Prince William Visits Matter in Bristol: Tackling Microplastic Pollution at Global Scale

Today, HRH Prince William visited 2025 Earthshot Prize Finalist, Matter, to learn more about their work to tackle microplastic pollution and their ambitious plans for scaling their impact globally.

During a tour of their headquarters in Bristol, UK, the Prince took part in a hands-on demonstration of their innovative water filtration technology system, Regen®, which captures microplastic fibres released from textiles during washing, preventing them from entering our waterways.

Microplastic pollution is one of the fastest-growing threats to the planet with over 171 trillion pieces floating in the world’s oceans, disrupting vital ocean ecosystems and linked with serious health issues in humans.

The largest contributor to this pollution is microplastic fibres, released during the washing cycle of clothes and textiles. Matter’s self-cleaning technology, which can be used in home washing machines through to large-scale industrial supply chains, captures up to 97% of microplastic fibres without the need for replacement cartridges – making it a simple, cost-effective, and highly scalable, solution.

After being shown Matter’s commercial-scale systems, Prince William joined a discussion with partners about the potential growth and impact of this technology.

During the Earthshot Summit in Rio de Janeiro in November 2025, Matter announced one such game-changing partnership with Inter IKEA to explore how their filtration technology can transform the global textile industry.

With plans to deliver enough solutions across both the home laundry and the textile markets to capture 15,000 tonnes of microfibre by 2030, Matter are driving progress towards a future where clean water and sustainable production are the norm, not the exception.