Some of you might be thinking how clothing is shedding as you read from the title, and be perplexed to understand how it happens. In today’s posts, we will highlight to you the causes of water pollution from the consumption aspect of fast fashion. We will focus on how microfibers come from the washing of clothes and how this will cause water pollution.
The posts we have made so far have looked at the causes and effects of the manufacturing side of fast fashion. However, we have yet to talk about the environmental impacts of the next life cycle of the clothes which is the aftercare, better known as cleaning and washing.
The microfibres we are referring to here includes synthetic microfibers, also known as submillimetre-sized polyester, acrylic, and nylon fibres and these microfibres are produced mainly from “conventional machine washing of common garments” (Hartline et al., 2016, p. 11532). In other words, our frequent usage of our washing machine is producing these microfibres. The clothes will start to shed as we wash them due to “clothes undergo(ing) mechanical and chemical stresses leading to detachment (of microfibres)” (Singh, Mishra, & Das, 2020, p. 3).
There are also other sources of microfibres such as microfibres from the textile industries, personal care products and a few others as shown in Figure 2. However, according to the compilation of the different contributions of microfibres, domestic laundering is still the highest amongst all the various sources, which amounts to about 13 million tons annually (Singh et al., 2020). This means that every consumer in the fast fashion industry has contributed significantly to the microfibres found in the environment. We as consumers of fast fashion have unknowingly added to this microfibre pollution every time we wash our clothes.
It is shocking to find out that “microfibers make up 85% of human-made debris on ocean shorelines” (Brewer, 2019) and it is inevitable that it can cause massive impacts on marine life. These microfibres are released into the water bodies through “untreated sewage, septic tanks, or greywater” (Hartline et al., 2016, p.11532). Such unregulated release of microfibres has become a problem as these microfibres tend to take in all the toxins in the water such as heavy metal, toxin chemicals as well as oil (Singh et al., 2020). As these fibre pollutants increase in quantity and stay longer in the rivers or ocean, marine life could treat them as food and it could potentially end up in our food chain.
Water pollution by microfibres will be worsened by the fast fashion industry when there are more clothes being produced and purchased. We will worsen the problem of the increasing amounts of microfibres unless we as consumers, do something about the unnecessary clothes that we are enticed to buy. Only then can the production of clothes be slowed down and hence, reduce the number of microfibres we produce.
Perhaps now you would be more conscious after reading this blog and give thought to the potential damages that could arise when you wash your clothes or buy clothes inconspicuously.
References
Brewer, M. K. (2019). Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility. Laws, 8(4). doi:10.3390/laws8040024
Hartline, N. L., Bruce, N. J., Karba, S. N., Ruff, E. O., Sonar, S. U., & Holden, P. A. (2016). Microfiber Masses Recovered from Conventional Machine Washing of New or Aged Garments. Environmental Science & Technology, 50(21), 11532-11538. doi:10.1021/acs.est.6b03045
Singh, R. P., Mishra, S., & Das, A. P. (2020). Synthetic microfibers: Pollution toxicity and remediation. Chemosphere, 257, 127199. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.127199
Vilaboy, M. (2016). Patagonia Turns Attention to Microfiber Pollution – Inside Outdoor Magazine. Retrieved 9 September 2020, from https://insideoutdoor.com/patagonia-turns-fight-microfiber-pollution/
