Hey everyone, in this post, we'll be taking a quick look at how household laundry can play a part in pollution. We normally think of pollution from the clothing industry as only from its production and distribution. However, there's one thing that we do in every household that contributes to pollution in the oceans - doing our laundry.
Some 500,000 (1) to over 6,000,000 (2) textile microfibres for synthetic materials, to up to 13,000,000 textile microfibres for cotton (3) are released from our clothes per wash. Imagine sending over a billion microfibres down the drain after doing laundry 20 time (at the most conservative estimate). Since these microfibres are less than 1mm in length, they are too small to be caught in the filters found in water treatment plants (4). This allows theses microfibres to enter waterways, eventually ending up out at sea.
All hope is not lost though! Companies such as PlanetCare produce filters for our washing machines. They work by attaching themselves to the water outflow of your washing machine and catch microfibres as they pass through. In the name of sustainability, they even collect your used filters, and cleans them to be reused, while recycling 5% of them. However, they're currently operating in the US, Canada, and the EU, and there's no alternative product we can find in Singapore.
The Surfrider Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the protection of oceans and coastlines, advocates for the implementation of some simple things we can do to reduce our contribution to microfibre pollution in the oceans:
Use a front-loading washing machine instead of a top loading one.
Wash less, and use cool water when you do.
Separate soft textiles and hard textiles.
Avoid using a tumble dryer, air dry instead.
Reduce rotation speed when washing
Use detergent (preferably liquid) sparingly.
Thanks for joining us this week!
Yours truly,
Bremen
References
(1) Napper, I. E.; Thompson, R. C. Release of synthetic microplastic plastic fibres from domestic washing machines: Effects of fabric type and washing conditions. Mar. Pollut. Bull. 2016, 112, 39– 45, DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.09.025
(2) De Falco, F.; Gullo, M. P.; Gentile, G.; Di Pace, E.; Cocca, M.; Gelabert, L.; Brouta-Agnésa, M.; Rovira, A.; Escudero, R.; Villalba, R.; Mossotti, R.; Montarsolo, A.; Gavignano, S.; Tonin, C.; Avella, M. Evaluation of microplastic release caused by textile washing processes of synthetic fabrics. Environ. Pollut. 2018, 236, 916– 925, DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2017.10.057
(3) Sillanpää, M.; Sainio, P. Release of polyester and cotton fibers from textiles in machine washings. Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 2017, 24, 19313– 19321, DOI: 10.1007/s11356-017-9621-1
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