Clothes made with microplastics - AWFUL

 Here is some information I found from the Friends of the Earth Website, they are one of the oldest green campaigners that I know of.

"Microfibres: the plastic in our clothes

Could you be eating your own clothes? Our garments are shedding tiny bits of plastic that can escape into the ocean and potentially enter the food chain. 

It might surprise you, but you're probably wearing plastic clothes.

Even more shocking, your clothes may be leading to invisible plastics infiltrating our oceans and even our own bodies. A new report Reducing Household Contributions to Marine Plastic Pollution by research group Eunomia, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, reveals how your clothes are part of this worrying problem. Read on to find out  more, and get tips on how to clean up your wardrobe.

Many of our clothes contain plastics like polyester, nylon, acrylic and polyamide. In fact most new fabrics are made of plastic – up to 64% of them.

The thing is, every time we wash these materials they shed millions of plastic microfibres. Threads so small they can drain out of our washing machines and pass straight through wastewater treatment plants into the sea.

It gets worse. Once in our oceans they can absorb nasty chemicals. Disturbingly, sea creatures are eating these toxic fibres, potentially passing them up the food chain. Some studies have found them in seafood like mussels.

If you don't like the idea of eating your own clothes, we need to find alternatives to using plastic. 

Just to be clear, we haven't got all the answers yet and we're not asking retailers to press a magic button. But we are asking them to urgently look into ways of removing the most-polluting items from our shelves.Polluting our oceans and harming our wildlife should never be in fashion.

What is a microfibre?

Microfibres are a type of microplastic – particles of plastic below 5mm in size. Other examples of microplastics include:

• bits from larger plastic items like bottles and bags that break down in the sea
• pieces that wear away from tyres while driving
• microbeads in cosmetics
• and paints on buildings and marking roads.

Thinner than a human hair

A microfibre is a plastic-based thread that is thinner than a human hair. Certain products shed microfibres during their lifetime. For example, they wash out of our synthetic clothes.

Most of these tiny fibres derive from polyester. Its lightness and warmth and the fact that it’s quick-drying seemingly make it perfect for clothing. Your fleece jacket is made from this stuff.

Other common microfibres include nylon and acrylic. They’re hiding in our carpets, curtains and other household textiles, as well as our clothes.

Environmentally-friendly plastic clothing?

Some brands market polyester apparel as environmentally friendly because they use recycled plastic bottles to make it. That may sound like a good way to reduce plastic pollution, but we now know that these garments are shedding lots of plastic debris.

Washing machines and wastewater treatment plants aren't designed to trap the minute plastic fibres that our clothes shed during washing. Many of these fibres sneak into our waterways and ultimately the oceans. And lots are caught up in sludge at the treatment plants – which is then sprayed over our soils as fertiliser.

What happens when microfibres escape into the oceans?

Sea organisms like plankton can easily mistake these tiny plastics for food. In turn, many smaller animals and fish depend on plankton as their main food source – the great blue whale is also a plankton eater. Anything that dines on the plankton will get a dose of plastic pollution – potentially passing microfibres up the food chain.

These plastic fibres have even been found in mussels and fish destined for the dinner table. And there are other ways they might end up in your body too. Microfibres have been found in air, rivers, soil, drinking water, beer and table salt.

These fibres are tiny, so what's the problem?

They might be minuscule but these plastic pieces can absorb high concentrations of poisonous substances – some of which escaped into our oceans years ago. These include chemicals we once used in products like pesticides but are now banned, like DDT.

Even before the fibres reach the ocean there's a good chance they've soaked up toxins from detergents and fire-proofing chemicals. Some of these pose a threat to our liver, kidneys and nervous system. Others are toxic to aquatic life.

They're definitely not substances you'd want lurking in the food chain"

 So looks like no polar fleeces for me!  Good grief is there no escape from Plastic?  It is really hard to understand how it came to infiltrate all parts of our lives.

 It would seem like I have gone full circle and I need to buy less things made from plastic.

The blog song for today is: "Shangri La" by ELO

TTFN