Featured Image Credit: Alexandr Vedmed
By: Kira Krall
Micropollutants are bits of trash less than .04 inches big. Microplastics are the most infamous form of micropollution and typically get into the water after plastic bottles begin to biodegrade. But there’s another form of micropollution, and it makes up 85 percent of human-made debris found on the world’s shorelines.
Every time we wash our clothes, tiny fibers wash away, enter water treatment plants, and eventually make their way into oceans and lakes. The magnified wool (in the picture above) demonstrates how many fibers can be in a single garment. All of these fibers are at risk of shedding.
These microfabrics are more commonly found in the seas than microbeads (another culprit) are, which were recently banned in the United States. It’s estimated that a single wash can deposit 2,000 microfibers into the water. That’s 2,000 opportunities for aquatic critters to ingest tiny bits of synthetic fibers every time you start the washing machine.
Just like microplastics, microfibers build up in an animal’s stomach and tissues. Predatory fish that humans like to eat have the most microfibers in their system. There’s a chance that sushi you had the other day had bits of your own clothing in it.
Image Credit: Independent
Dr. Sheri Mason at the State University of New York sampled 2,000 fish in the Great Lakes and found that 90% of the pollutants found were microfibers. Unlike microplastics that tend to pass through the digestive systems of underwater animals, Dr. Mason discovered that the tiny fabric pieces are weaving themselves into animal’s digestive tracts.
There’s a few solutions to this massive, tiny-fiber problem. The simplest answer is to update water treatment plants with microfiber filters. Unfortunately, that route is the most expensive and could cost thousands of dollars per treatment plant.
Another solution is to toss a grapefruit-sized microfiber filter into each wash. Replacing your top-loading washing machine with a front-loading one will also keep some microfiber out of the water. Top-loading machines deposit 5 times the amount of microfiber as front-loading ones.
Image Credit: Rozalia Project
Convincing people to change their purchasing habits is often a tall order.
So, the majority of the responsibility seems to be falling onto clothing producers. By making more durable clothing without synthetic fibers, companies can attack the microfabric problem at the source.
As a consumer, you can pressure companies to produce clothing made with shed-free or natural fabric by using your dollar. Purchasing clothing made with natural fabrics like cotton or hemp will increase demand for a healthier ocean.
Click here to read more about micropollutants and to track our trash around the world.