Our Clothes Are Polluting the Oceans and We Are Eating and Breathing Microplastics

Increasingly our clothing is made of plastic instead of plants. No doubt you have heard and read about the microplastics filling our oceans and finding their way into marine life. But these tiny microbeads of plastic are also in our soil and air, our food and our drinking water.

Some of this plastic, as we know, comes from our plastic waste ever so slowly degrading into pieces that break down smaller and smaller as time goes on. Although we have been using plastics for a very long time, mass production began in the early 1950s. Since then most of our plastics have gone to landfills or find their way into our oceans where they may take 500 to 1,000 years to fully break down. In the meantime, tiny and tinier particles are released as they begin to break down. Around 50 years ago the health and beauty industry started using microbeads in products as an exfoliator. Those microbeads are also plastic! and go down our drains into our water systems. So, we do know that as individual consumers we need to reduce, reuse and recycle our plastics, but we also need to refrain from buying cosmetics, soaps, toothpastes, etc that contain microbeads.

But our clothing? What exactly is happening with plastics and plants in our clothing? Amazingly it is not just the plastics, but sometimes the combination of a plastic and a plant that causes a problem. So it is important to understand exactly how our clothing made of both plastics and plants are contributing to plastics in the environment.

We have come to love living in our comfortable, stretchy, breathable and inexpensive athletic and leisure wear. Of course they are made of plastic! Nylon, polyester, acrylics, synthetic blends and synthetics blended with natural plant fibers. Washing a load of laundry can release hundreds of thousands of tiny fibers into our water system. Release of tiny natural plant fibers is not a problem, but of course plastic fibers have become an enormous problem. Even just moving around and walking in our clothing causes tiny plastic microfibers to shed into the air and fall to the soil. So, we are drinking, eating and even breathing these tiny pieces of plastic.

The type of synthetic, as well as the synthetics blended with natural plant fibers have been found to shed at different rates. There is still much to study in addition to the fabrics, including the garment construction, water temperature, large versus small wash loads, even the detergent and fabric softener. But some things have been found to be consistent thus far.

• Microfibers, small strands of plastic to produce synthetic fabrics, shed microscopic plastic fibers when washed.

• Microplastics from washing clothing are so small that most filters in our water systems cannot stop them. These tiny microbeads wind up in our drinking water, our food, even our bloodstreams.

• All fabrics shed the most when new.

• Acrylic fabric sheds the most, then polyester and then synthetic/natural blends. Natural fibers shed the least. Interestingly, one study found that specifically a polyester-cotton blend was producing more shed fibers than 100 percent polyester, seemingly influenced by the weave and the garment construction. There were consistently dramatic reductions in what was shed from tightly woven fabrics of and tightly wound fibers and yarns.

• A top loading washing machine may release as much as seven times the microfibers as a front load washing machine.

And what can we do about it? How can we reduce the release of microplastics into our environment?

• Purchase a lot less clothing.

• Invest in a few classic, high quality pieces that you can wear a very long time. This will produce substantially fewer fibers every time you wash rather than new pieces release constantly shedding a large amount of plastic fibers.

• Purchase natural fibers as much as possible. But we must also be mindful that producing cotton, wool, hemp, silk, etc do stress our environment in other ways. For example they tend to require enormous amounts of water to produce. Rayon and viscose lead to deforestation. Animal fabrics such as wool, leather, alpaca or down, as an alternative to both synthetics and plant fabrics also need to be sustainably managed.

• At least select synthetic/natural blends that produce the least shedding. Fortunately many of our synthetic leisure wear is tightly woven and so sheds less, but the yoga wear, gym clothes, tights, hoodies, undergarments, etc do require more frequent washing. Think about how much a polyester sweater can shed compared to a polyester athletic performance fabric.

• Use liquid soap and less of it in the washing machine instead of powder. Liquid is less abrasive to fabrics, releasing few fibers.

• Invest in fiber filtering products. Think about how much fiber is trapped in the lint filter in your dryer. And that is AFTER the clothing has been washed and released most of the fibers into the water! New washing machine filter systems can be connected at the discharge hose. Synthetics can be washed in filtering bags and the sheets of fibers peeled off the bag just like your dryer filter. There are also a few different little lint catching balls you can put in the washing machine.

• Wash synthetic clothing less. Break the habit of washing clothing every time you wear it. Sitting at our office desk or relaxing at home our clothing normally can be worn more than once.

• Use a front loading washing machine that is gentler on clothing than a top loader. Far fewer fibers are released into the water.

There is much to be done, including finding ways to filter microplastics out of our water systems, remove plastic already in our natural waters, and of course reduce, reuse and recycle our plastics. Perhaps as much as 35 percent of the microplastics in the ocean come from synthetic fabrics. But now we also know that there are things we can do as individuals by changing the way we buy and wash our clothing! It seems that we can make the greatest improvement with our washing machines and filtering.