Clothes pollute the environment with microplastics

Editorial written by the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board

When you hear the word “microfiber,” you probably think of the now-ubiquitous reusable cloths used for cleaning floors, wiping up spills, and polishing countertops.

For environmentalists, however, that word has a much more sinister meaning. It describes the tiny threads that textiles shed by the millions during each spin through the washing machine and which ultimately end up polluting the environment, particularly oceans, rivers, and lakes.

Since most clothing is made with synthetic materials, such as polyester, rayon and acrylic, it means that most microfibers are also microplastics.

Microplastic is found in every corner of the planet, from the deepest depths of the ocean to the ice in glaciers and even the air itself. These tiny bits of plastic have invaded our food chain and water supply and are now routinely found inside humans.

Science has yet to determine the full effect of this proliferation of microplastic on human health, but evidence suggests that microplastics emit chemicals that can increase the risk of health concerns such as chronic inflammation, cancer, and infertility.

And microplastic particles that are extremely small, such as threads from clothing, can be particularly dangerous because they can slip easily into bodies, ingested along with water or inhaled into the lungs, where they can embed and do further physical damage.

The good news is that our municipal wastewater systems do a good job of catching microfibers that shed in the wash. Problem solved? Not quite.

Those tiny pieces of plastic can become trapped inside the nutrient-rich biosolids produced by wastewater plants. If that material is used to fertilize agriculture, those microfibers are released into the air and water. And once microfibers get into the environment, it is virtually impossible to clean them up.

One potential solution, at least in the short-term, is filtering out microfibers before they can get into the wastewater stream and sending them to the landfill. Studies have found that filters with mesh of a certain size built into washing machines are able to catch more than 90% of the microfibers.

Ultimately, textile manufacturers and fast fashion companies, which are a significant source of synthetic clothing worldwide, should switch to natural fibers that don’t generate microplastic waste to begin with. Until that happens, we’re left trying to catch and keep microfibers out of the environment.