Did you know that the t-shirt that you are wearing right now is polluting the ocean? Unfortunately, most of us are unaware of the danger lurking in the clothes that we wear each day, the danger of the materials our clothes are made of; the dangers of microfibers.
What Are Microfibers?
Microfibers are tiny plastic particles found in clothing, and they are polluting our waterways. This means we are eating and drinking them, harming the wildlife and the ecosystem we live in.
We’ve been trying to solve the plastic pollution that we created, and while we are taking slow steps towards that, but each time we wear clothes made of microfibers, we are coming back to square one.
Why Microfibers Are A Problem?
Many brands, big and small, collect plastic from the oceans, downcycle it into fibers, and then make clothes out of it. This effort has been attracting a great deal of attention and praise. But the issue starts when washing or discarding the clothes. This is because washing the clothes shed microplastic fibers, due to which the plastic particles again end up in the oceans, inside the fish which we eat, in the air, in the salt, and in our drinking water. In fact, according to one article in the Guardian, where samples of tap waters from around the world were tested by scientists, in which, “overall, 83% of the samples were contaminated with plastic fibers.”
“The US had the highest contamination rate, at 94%, with plastic fibers found in tap water sampled at sites including Congress buildings, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s headquarters, and Trump Tower in New York.” Reads in the Guardian.
In the case of manufacturing and less consumption of water, synthetic fibers could be an amazing thing. They are easy to produce, they require less water, unlike cotton, nor do they need pesticides to grow. But sadly, these don’t make synthetic fibers environmentally friendly.
So How Do We Deal With This Issue?
It is impractical to get rid of synthetic fibers all at once. That with the given amount of clothes we produce each day. However, we all together can take slow yet steady steps towards safe clothing and a safe environment. We can start with the way we buy our clothes and the way we produce our clothes.
