The Impact of Textile Microfibers on the Marine Floor

In recent years, the pollution of our oceans has become a major issue. There have been several campaigns that have come to the fore, however 2018 has been the year that saw a real move away from the use of plastic. 

This is probably thanks to Sir David Attenborough, who famously used the return of Blue Planet to lament the condition our waters are in. By singling out this very serious issue and placing it in a primetime slot on a show that took a decade to return, the message was loud and clear: it’s time to think about what’s happening to our ocean floors.

While the more obvious offenders are the plastic bags and cartons that we use daily, as well as the microbeads in our beauty products, there’s one major source of plastic pollution that many are unaware of: our clothes are adding to the problem in a very subtle way.

Here’s how this is happening, as well as some ways to tackle it.

Plastic Wear

Many materials we wear are formed from plastic fibres. In fact, around 60% of clothing in the world today is plastic, with polyester, acrylic and nylon all regularly making up the clothing we wear daily.

Pollution caused by these clothes takes place just through washing them. According to some estimates, the plastic, synthetic materials in the clothing seep into the waters in just one wash, adding thousands of harmful microfibers into the environment in the process. These fibres then end up in the ocean, adding to the microplastic pollution there and affecting marine life.

The University of Exeter conducted a study to assess the impact of these microplastics on creatures that live in the oceans. Food contaminated with the microfibers was given to crabs and results revealed that the ingesting of microfibers caused the animals to behave differently and stalled their growth.

What’s Next?

While being conscious when buying our clothes is a step in the right direction, it’s not always possible. Clothing that uses synthetic materials are often more affordable and more versatile than those made with natural fibres. Therefore, it might be better to assess the clothes we do have and not being so quick to throw them away.

However, as washing these materials is a big factor, it’s worth looking at the machines we use and how often we’re washing them. We’re yet to see a dedicated machine that has the tech to reduce the fibres into the environment, but we can ease the problem.

For example, cases where a lot of synthetic materials need to be washed regularly, for example when washing uniforms for hotel staff, using an industrial machine such as one from JLA, and a laundry bag could potentially make a difference.

Time will tell if we can develop the technology to filter out these harmful fibres in the wash before they reach the oceans. In the meantime, we can only try to reduce the number of fibres making their way into the waters.