Do you carefully judge the material of your clothing before making a purchase? No? then you must! after reading this article on microfibers.
Pollution comes in many forms, but sources that have many challenges to address are microfibers pollution and microplastic. Microfibers are a significant issue
They are too small to filter out once wholly dissolved in the water. We can adopt various microfiber pollution solutions to help towards a healthy environment.
You can contribute to a healthy environment by making small changes in your washing habits, such as filling the machine complete with water, drying on low rev, buying eco-friendly clothes, installing a washing machine microplastic filter and using liquid soap.
What is Microfibers Pollution?
Synthetic materials used in clothing and textiles such as polyester, acrylic, and nylon represent almost 60% of the clothing industry. Synthetic fabric sheds tiny plastic fibres called microfibers when manufactured, washed, and worn.
Microfibers in the ocean are not visible to the naked eye as they are smaller than 5mm. Every time we do laundry, these tiny particles end up in our treated water and eventually in the oceans. Aquatic animals most likely eat these tiny particles, or they are just floating in the water, causing microfibers pollution.
Related article : Household Carbon Footprint
Microfiber Pollution Solutions
Microfiber solutions and simple practices can begin at home; the small steps count toward a healthy environment. Approximately 2 million tonnes of microfibers are released into the ocean annually from various sources, of which 700,000 microfleeces are released from each garment through the domestic laundry. So you can imagine the number of microplastics released into the ocean. As microplastic is not visible to the naked eye, treatment plants cannot filter them out, so what are the microplastics in the ocean solutions?
Related article : Air Quality and Environmental Health
1. Purchasing eco friendly textiles — solutions for microplastics in water
The key to end microfibers pollution is to avoid buying clothes with high fibres or cheaply made products. Altogether, boycott the companies that encourage these materials to be sold in their shops. It’s one step closer to the pollution solution where we can promote eco-friendly textiles to sell their products in high-end stores to make them more accessible to the customers.
2. Installing Washing Machine Microplastic Filter
With these small washing habits, you can reduce the number of microfibers in the ocean. Installing a microplastic filter for washing machine will catch up to 90% of the released plastic into the environment. It also depends on how frequently we wash our clothes; the more we clean, the more fibres they release. Our washing machine is a water pollution machine when it comes to microfibers.
3. Consider Switching to a Liquid laundry Soap
Laundry powder scrubs and loosens more microfibers from clothes and releases them into the environment. You can try setting the temperature to cold water; that’s one of the microfiber solutions. It’s better to go for a liquid laundry detergent which is easy on the clothes and doesn’t get build up in the washing machine like the powdered detergent does.
5. Fill Up your Washing Machine to the Max
Washing a complete load machine will cause less friction between the clothes; therefore, less amount of microfibres will be released into the environment. Do not forget to use a washing machine microplastic filter to collect all the remains of the fabric.
Final thoughts
The consequences of ubiquitous microfibers pollution are disastrous to animals and humans. According to the studies, microfibers are responsible for 85% of global shoreline pollution. There are a few microfiber pollution solutions we can adopt to reduce the number of microfibers in the water. They all concern your washing habits, including a microplastic filter for washing machine, which reduces the microfibers to be released into the ocean.