[Reason077]

Assuming you dump the sludge in the bin when you clean the filter then it’s much better than going into the ocean.

Depending on your location, they’ll either get destroyed by incineration or put in landfill where they’ll do less harm and hopefully break down after a few centuries.

Of course, if you clean the filter by flushing the sludge down the sink then you didn’t solve anything.

[bordercases]

The risk is runoff into the ocean or insertion into the water table through seepage within the dump into the soil. Furthermore incineration doesn't atomize these plastics; the smoke plumage may become a part of rain clouds which either recirculates the contaminants into the water cycle, and thus either in the local environment or into the ocean, again.

Obviously these are geography-relative concerns. But they aren't rare.