How many of you loved glitter as a kid? I am sure some of us were big fans and would put glitter on everything and everywhere. Nowadays, glitter is still present in many products today as we can see from make-up to even clothes (see Figure 1). Today’s posts will look into how glitter can pollute the environment and become microplastics that are stored in our soils or settle as sediments in a water body.
Fast fashion has involved microplastic not only in the production and washing of clothes but also in the use of glitter. Glitter is a very small flake of plastic and tends to go everywhere and stick on everything. Glitter becomes the best decorating piece on clothing as it is very eye-catching and makes the clothes look attractive. Without a doubt, the glitter will fall off when the clothes are being washed and it will have the same fate as microfibres (which was discussed in earlier posts) and end up in the sewer system (Yurtsever, 2019). These glitters that were once so wonderful become unpleasant and harmful when they accumulate in our soils and pollute the soils as they start to absorb toxins (Yurtsever, 2019).
What makes glitter so pollutive and detrimental to the environment? Glitter is usually made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) polymer and the sparkling quality comes from the metal coating on the outside to make it reflective (Yurtsever, 2019). As the glitter on products starts to shed, it will enter the environment and then start to absorb toxins. Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) can be absorbed into microplastics where the microplastic becomes a surface to hold toxins (Yurtsever, 2019). These toxic chemicals, such as heavy metals like lead and silver, and hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) also referred to as POPs are also known to be “mutagenic, teratogenic and carcinogenic” (Verla et al., 2019) p. 4.
Gradually, the detrimental effects of glitters are being more known to the public as people start to stop using glitter. In 2017, a group of nurseries in England stopped the use of glitter and the New Zealand-based social scientist Dr Trisia Farrelly requested people to completely ban the use of plastic glitter (Bramley, 2018). Although the use of glitter is wide and need not only apply to fast fashion, fast fashion could still potentially be the industry that contributes the most microplastic in the environment. As the clothes get bought quickly and disposed of as quickly, the amount of glitter that will get into the landfill will continue to increase and eventually we could have glitter-filled soils and water bodies.
Only when we instil greater environmentally-friendly consciousness on consumers and ask them to switch away from fast fashion, then will we see an actual change in the total microplastic contributed by the use of glitter in the fast fashion industry. Not only that, as more people switch away from fast fashion, we can also reduce the pollution that each consumer contributes, and perhaps we can have a cleaner environment to live in.
References
Bramley, E. (2018). Losing its sparkle: the dark side of glitter. the Guardian. Retrieved 26 October 2020, from https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2018/jan/21/losing-its-sparkle-the-dark-side-of-glitter.
Verla, A. W., Enyoh, C. E., Verla, E. N., & Nwarnorh, K. O. (2019). Microplastic–toxic chemical interaction: a review study on quantified levels, mechanism and implication. SN Applied Sciences, 1(11), 1400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-1352-0
Yurtsever, M. (2019). Glitters as a Source of Primary Microplastics: An Approach to Environmental Responsibility and Ethics. Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, 32(3), 459-478. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-019-09785-0
