fashion: Goal 14: Life Below Water - How our clothes impact the oceans and seas

Plastic. It is a fantastic material: versatile, durable, cheap. In the last 100 years plastic has revolutionised our society. Looking around the room you are in right now, look at all the materials that make the objects around you. I bet the majority is plastic. Now, look at your clothing. Does it surprise you that the same material that makes mechanical parts for planes, single-use water bottles, or food package wrappers could be used to make the clothes you are wearing?

Why are microplastics a problem for the environment and us?

Firstly, what are microplastics? Microplastics are tiny plastic pieces that are less than <5 mm in length. There are two sources, primary and secondary. Primary sources are microplastics that have been made to be that size (for example, microbeads in cosmetics or plastic glitter). Secondary microplastic comes from larger items of plastic that have fragmented (for example, plastic pieces fragmented from a polyethylene carrier bag).

Do our clothes add to microplastic in the oceans?

When we wash our clothes, and they are swishing and swirling around in the washing machine, plastic microfibres can detach off our clothes and go into the wastewater. The wastewater then goes to the sewage treatment facilities. As the fibres are so small, a majority can pass through filtration processes and make their way into the marine environment. Up to 700,000 fibres can come off our clothes in a typical wash . Now imagine that for how many times you wash your clothes in a year. Then multiply that for your street, town, city, country. It is a huge proportion of tin microplastic fibres potentially entering our oceans. Fibres can also come off our clothes even when they are not being washed.

Why is this an issue?

We make over 300 million tons of plastic every year, and 8 million tons of that is predicted to go into our oceans. Due to the tiny size of microfibres, they can be ingested by marine animals, many of which end up as our food. Once ingested, they can cause gut blockage, physical injury, changes to oxygen levels in cells in the body, altered feeding behaviour and reduced energy levels, which impacts growth and reproduction. Due to this, the balance of whole ecosystems can be affected. Additionally, the polymers that make up the microfibres contain chemical additives such as plasticisers (a substance added to improve plasticity and flexibility of a material), flame retardants and antimicrobial agents (a chemical that kills or stops the growth of microorganisms like bacteria), which could leach out of the plastic and into the environment.

However, in my personal opinion, the biggest threat is the amount of plastic entering the oceans every day, which is about one garbage truck of plastic a minute. Our oceans are turning into a big plastic soup. We need to turn the tide on plastic entering the environment now so that we can stop destroying oceans, their wildlife and our health into the future. SDG 14 sets out to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.” In order to achieve this goal, we need to stop this plastic tide, otherwise, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by 2050, and this will have long-lasting and devastating effects on marine ecosystems.

What can the fashion industry do about it?

Several methods can be used on synthetic materials which will reduce the release of microfibres during a clothing item’s life. These include brushing, laser and ultrasound cutting, material coatings and pre-washing the fabrics.

Due to how much synthetic clothing is produced and used globally, it is extremely unlikely that fashion brands will immediately swap all plastic-based materials with an alternative material that doesn’t shed microfibres. Therefore, a focus on the fashion industry developing new, high-performing alternatives, will allow for plastic-based materials to be phased out in the future.

Wastewater treatment plants (where all our used water gets filtered and treated) are currently between 65-90% efficient at filtering microfibres, with only the most advanced systems capturing 90%. Research and innovations into improving the efficiency of capturing microfibres in wastewater treatment plants is essential to prevent microfibres from escaping into our environment.

Improving and developing commercial washing machine filters that can capture microfibres will also allow for an additional level of filtration to prevent them from escaping into our oceans. However, current washing machine filters, such as that developed by Wexco, are currently expensive and reportedly difficult to install. We need to see microfibre filters being developed in all washing machines as a standard, which is likely to require government legislation. As of February 2020, France is the first country in the world to take legislative steps in the fight against plastic microfibre pollution. As of January 2025, all new washing machines in France will have to include a filter to stop synthetic clothes from polluting our waterways. The measure is included in the anti-waste law for a circular economy.

So, what can we do about it ourselves?

Previously, University of Plymouth research looked at whether changing the temperature in the washing cycle, or the use of detergent/conditioner would make a difference to the number of fibres coming off. However, we found that there was no clear evidence suggesting that changing the washing conditions gave any meaningful effect. But, there are other ways we all can help:

1. Only wash your clothes when you need to. Given that up to 700,000 microfibres can detach in a single wash, ask yourself if that item really needs to be washed or can it be worn once or twice more before you do?
2. You can also use a Cora Ball and Guppyfriend bag, which are devices created to capture microfibres when washing our clothes. Although these can’t solve the problem, we still want to divert as many microfibres as we can from entering our waterways.

It continues to surprise people that even washing our clothes can add to the problem. But if we all start making changes, this is a problem we can fix.