Teeny tiny plastics 

Microplastics are very small plastic particles that are <5mm in length, but more commonly used to refer to those <1mm (Almroth et al., 2018). Microplastics are ubiquitous. They have been accumulating in our oceans for decades (Van Cauwenberghe, 2013) but are considered an increasingly important pollutant today found in aquatic and marine environments. They have even been located in the remote deep seas, far from any continental margin (Van Cauwenberghe, 2013)! 

You may then ask, what do plastics have got to do with textiles? Well, microplastics may derive from the breakup of larger plastics into smaller fragments (Van Cauwenberghe, 2013), but are also contained within textiles! Textile fibres are part of microplastics, and is (or is expected to be) the main source of microplastics since there has been rigorous effort to eliminate them from consumer products like body washes and cosmetics (Hernandez et al., 2017). For instance, Deng et al. (2020) reports that synthetic fibres constitute 90% of microplastics found in coastal environments, where the main sources are wastewater discharged from industrial and domestic sources. Sometimes, it is the accumulation of the small and seemingly unimportant things that have the most impact. 

Industries 

Microplastics entering water bodies is a problem especially if there is an absence of, or low quality effluent treatment regulations and processes. In a study by Deng et al. (2020) in Shaoxing city, China, the inadequacy of sewage systems in factors caused inefficient removals of microplastics, which caused these microplastics fibres to float down rivers and accumulate in downstream areas. Textile factories were concluded to be the main source of high microfibre pollution in local freshwater and sediment environments. However, even if there exist wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), it is still difficult to prevent all microplastics from entering freshwater bodies. For instance, microplastic densities were found to be higher downstream than upstream of the WWTP (Hernandez, 2017). 

Nevertheless, WWTP have generally been efficient in removing microplastics from wastewater and preventing them from entering aquatic ecosystems (Corradini et al., 2019). YAYYY……? 

BUT! This presents another pesky problem! Corradini et al. (2019) writes that WWTP removes microplastics from wastewater by trapping and concentrating them in sludge. This sludge, however, may be applied to agricultural fields as fertilisers. Microplastics then accumulate in soils (with excessive application) and contaminate the crops grown, where the microplastic concentration increases with successive applications. A survey by Liu et al. (2018) found that 63% of microplastic contamination by sewage sludge in China were fibres from textiles (Corradini et al., 2019). The problem is basically dumped to another place, rather than actually being solved. 

Domestic

Remember the supply chain diagram in the first post? Surprise surprise, turns out the “final” stage of the product reaching the consumer is not the end of the pollution story of textiles! Even as we wear and use textile products (e.g. clothing), we are still polluting the environment via washing them in the laundry. Honestly, the more I research for this blog, the more frightening it is to see how pollution is so deeply embedded within every facet of our daily lives. I can’t look at the products I use the same way again…

When we wash our clothes, microfibres are released. This shedding of microfibres is an important source of microplastic pollution (Almroth, 2017). An estimated 100-300 fibres per litre are contained in washing machines, where the amount could exceed 700,000 from a 6kg laundry (Almroth, 2017).  Every year, 500,000 tons of microfibers into the ocean from washing processes – that is about 50 billion plastic bottles (McFall-Johnsen, 2019)! The collective release of microplastics from industrial and domestic sources directly accumulate in recipient water bodies, which has real repercussions on the organisms. It has proven that organisms such as Daphnia magna (a small planktonic crustacean) accidentally ingest synthetic microfibers, increasing their mortality rate (Almroth, 2017). However! This is still not the end of the horror story. Microfibres from laundry can also reach terrestrial environments – via the spreading of sludge (Almroth, 2017). 

What does microplastic pollution then mean for us, humans?

I believe that all of us are familiar with this by now. We can never be divorced from the natural environment and are inextricably connected to it in one way or another. Microplastic pollution directly affects the food we consume, where microfibres have been detected in products such as blue mussels, honey, table salt, and even beer (Almroth, 2018). The infographics below provide good visual representation on this issue. 

That marks the end of this series of posts on the textile industry! See y’all in time to come =^-^= 

 

References:

Almroth, B.M.C., Åström, L., Roslund, S., Petersson, H., Johansson, M. & Persson, N. (2018) Quantifying shedding of synthetic fibers from textiles; a source of microplastics released into the environment. Environmental Science and Pollution Research International. 25(2), 1191-1199. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0528-7 

Corradini, F., Meza, P., Eguiluz, R., Casado, F., Huerta-Lwanga, E. & Geissen, V. (2019) Evidence of microplastic accumulation in agricultural soils from sewage sludge disposal. The Science of the Total Environment. 671, 411-420. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.03.368 

Deng, H., Wei, R., Luo, W., Hu, L., Li, B., Di, Y. & Shi, H. (2020) Microplastic pollution in water and sediment in a textile industrial area. Environmental Pollution. 258(113658). Available from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2019.113658 

Hernandez, E., Nowack, B. & Mitrano, D.M. (2017) Polyester textiles as a source of microplastics from households: A mechanistic study to understand microfiber release during washing. Environmental science & technology. 51(12), 7036-7046. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01750 

McFall-Johnsen, M. (2019) The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet. Business Insider. Available from: https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissions-waste-water-2019-10 [Accessed 1 October 2020]. 

Van Cauwenberghe, L., Vanreusel, A., Mees, J. & Janssen, C.R. (2013) Microplastic pollution in deep-sea sediments. Environmental Pollution. 182, 495-499. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2013.08.013 

Images:

Dailymail (2018) How much plastic pollution do we breathe in per day? Available from: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/fb-5408973/HOW-PLASTIC-POLLUTION-BREATHE-DAY.html [Accessed 1 October 2020]. 

Principe, M. (2020) Your clothes release microplastics in the wash—Here’s how to prevent it. Yahoo!Finance. Available from: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/clothes-release-microplastics-wash-heres-231022646.html [Accessed 1 October 2020].