Microfibres: How our clothes are polluting the Great Lakes
Our clothes are one of the largest contributors to microplastic pollution in our lakes and oceans
Microplastics have become a pervasive form of pollution in our bodies of water. They can be found close to home in our rivers and lakes, and they also pollute our oceans - even as far away as remote Arctic passages.
What are microplastics?
Microplastics are defined by National Geographic as “tiny plastic particles that result from both commercial product development and the breakdown of larger plastics”.
There are five main categories of microplastics: nurdles, plastic fragments, polystyrene, microbeads, and microfibres.
These categories of microplastics differ in composition and origin, but one thing remains consistent; all microplastics are smaller than 5mm in length.
Often, they are the result of larger pieces of plastic breaking down from exposure to the elements through chemical degradation, photodegradation, and biodegradation.
Other microplastics, like nurdles, are designed to be small to allow them to be moulded into new plastic items - but that’s a story for another time.
Today, we’re talking about microfibres, perhaps the most overlooked category of microplastics. Microfibres are tiny synthetic fibres, often originating from textiles and cigarette filters.
Scientists have estimated that textiles are responsible for approximately 35% of the microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans — 2.2 million tons to be exact—meaning it is the largest source of marine microplastic pollution.
Microfibres are shed from our clothing in every wash cycle, and our wastewater treatment plants are unable to fully filter all microplastics out of the water. The remaining microplastics find their way into streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans through runoff and atmospheric deposition.
What materials shed microfibres?
Textile degradation occurs when we wash our clothing, a lot of which is composed of synthetic fibres. These represent nearly 60% of the annual global consumption of fibres. The ubiquity of certain fabrics in our favourite athleisure wear, cozy fleeces, and stretch denim all contribute to the issue of marine pollution. Synthetic materials include:
Nylon
Polyester
Acrylic
Fleece
Elastane
How can we make a difference?
If you love lakes and other magnificent bodies of water as much as we do at A Greener Future, here are a few ways you can help reduce the circulation of microplastics in our water systems:
Buy an apparatus to use inside your washing machine to reduce the amount of microfibres entering the water supply. These laundry balls and net bags can be found at many online eco shops.
Wash less. Fewer loads of laundry equals fewer opportunities for textile degradation.
Purchase fewer new clothes. New garments tend to shed more microplastics.
Opt for more natural fibre clothing in your wardrobe. These materials include wool, silk, organic cotton, and linen.
Swap out your microfibre cleaning cloths for cloths composed of biodegradable materials.
Connect a microfibre filter to your washing machine.
Even though it's a far-reaching issue, we can still do our part to mitigate plastic pollution. Let’s save our lakes and oceans together!
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Resource Use in the Fashion Industry
Pssst… Want the Real Dirt on the Fashion Industry?
In my younger years, I visited malls a lot - meaning at least once a month for a big shopping haul. My friends and I had routine routes to shop at all of our favourite stores - Forever 21, H&M and Garage. I always found reasonably priced clothes, meaning I could walk out of these stores with plenty of new outfits to wear. Flash forward to these days, my habits with clothing have evolved into a more mindful and aware approach. Over the past years, I’ve started paying more attention to the small details of clothing tags. Where was this shirt made? What material is it made of? What company made this shirt? These questions are important for me as I try to understand the history behind clothing garments.
Little did I know throughout elementary and high school that the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, ranking just after the oil industry. As a consumer, it is difficult to visualize the resources and pollution associated with a neatly folded t-shirt on the mall shelves. Heck, that dress in the mall has probably done more world travelling than most of us. The end-product of clothing can be presented very cleanly - but we’re here to uncover some real dirt on the fashion industry.
Fast fashion is the underlying culprit behind one of the most resource-intensive and polluting industries on the planet. The fast fashion business model ensures two main things: unbelievably cheap prices and constant new styles for the consumer. In reality, fast fashion holds the title for being one of the ongoing main trends responsible for negative social, economic and environmental impacts. Not to mention, clothing production has doubled between 2000 and 2014. It’s no wonder that these trends come with an underlying price on our environment.
RESOURCE USE + POLLUTION
Jeans are the go-to clothing staple for nearly everyone, probably topped with your favourite cotton tee. They sit in the spotlight for a few reasons - their ability to create that casual, everyday look, and their uncanny consumption of water during production. In fact, as much as 7,500 litres of water are required to make a single pair of jeans. Just a single pair of jeans consumes enough water for about 150 showers, with each shower averaging about 50 litres of water. Cotton, which a large percentage of jeans are made from, is the culprit behind these enormous amounts of water. Your favourite cotton t-shirt slurps back enough water for one person to drink for 900 days. Cotton is also the most common natural fibre used to make clothing, accounting for about 33% of all fibres found in textiles.
In Central Asia, the Aral Sea was once the 4th largest body of inland water in the world. Since 1960, this lake has been shrinking as a result of unsustainable cotton cultivation and is now almost completely gone. The United Nations called this event, “the most staggering disaster of the twentieth century”. On the other hand, organically grown cotton offers a 87% reduction in water usage, compared to conventional agriculture. Companies like Patagonia have transitioned to 100% organically grown virgin cotton, shifting towards a more sustainable solution.
The average Canadian buys 70 new pieces of clothing per year, or about one new clothing article every 5 days. Each article of clothing requires chemicals used in agricultural pesticides or clothing dye. Garment manufacturing accounts for about 20 percent of industrial wastewater in the world. There are hundreds of dangerous chemicals used in the process of manufacturing clothing, ultimately released into our environment. Wastewater is more often than not dumped into our water sources, harming our planet, and, well, us. China, the hub for global manufacturing, has designated one-third of the country’s rivers too polluted for direct human contact. About 8,000 synthetic chemicals are used in clothing manufacturing, lingering with carcinogens and hormone disruptors. Chemicals like Glyphosate, used in cotton farming, and formaldehyde, used to make clothing wrinkle-free, all make their way to the local environment. A perfect world for me includes a clothing tag disclosing information like the ‘ingredients’ used to make a garment, similar to a nutritional label required for food products.
We’ve all heard of microplastics. They are born from synthetic petroleum-based fabrics like nylon, polyester, acrylic and acetate, which release microfibres when washed. It was found that the main source of microplastic pollution is due to synthetic textiles, which pollute 83% of the world’s drinking water.
Looking to learn more about microplastics, and their impacts on our environment? Check out Pollution in Hiding: Microplastics in Lake Ontario.
Yup, these cold-hard facts of the fashion industry can be a bit of a bummer. We’re not alone with these concerns, as an initiative by the National Resources Defense Council has recently come to light. They are shifting the way corporations are operating, with both monetary and environmental rewards for their suppliers abroad. Really, what could be better?
The Clean by Design program offers a business model that focuses on increasing production efficiency in overseas manufacturing facilities, while simultaneously reducing their environmental footprint. This green supply chain program has been operating for a mere six years but has already had significant impacts.
In 2014, Clean by Design saved about $15 million dollars in operating costs annually to the participating manufacturers' mills, or about $440,000 per mill. Initiatives include water savings through grey water recycling, and energy savings by recovering heat from hot water and oil. This model is what we like to call a win-win, for both the fashion economy and our precious environment.
NEXT STEPS
There are estimates that clothing production will more than triple current production by 2050. Fast fashion skews the value of all clothing, creating a clothing norm that includes short-lived and replaceable garments. Let’s uncover some steps we can take, moving forward to a more sustainable fashion industry.
Quick Tips
Purchase clothing made of natural fibres such as organic cotton, linen, silk, wool and hemp. These textiles are all naturally biodegradable and use less harmful chemicals compared to synthetic materials. They are safer for us, and the environment.
If possible, invest in clothing that is well-made and locally produced. Timeless clothing pieces are a great investment, as they will last many years and still look fabulous.
Let’s go thrift shopping! Grab your pal and spend some time sifting through the thrift store racks. It’s a guaranteed fun afternoon, with possible treasures found along the way. After all, one person’s trash is another’s treasure. Apps like Depop and Poshmark are great alternatives for online curated used clothing.
Read the label. Becoming a conscious consumer is a valuable habit. Petroleum-based synthetic fibres emit more greenhouse gases and are not biodegradable like natural fibres.
Rent clothes. We all have that one overpriced dress, collecting dust at the back of our closet for years. Looking back, I wish I considered renting a dress for that fancy occasion. The possibilities are endless with clothing rentals - weddings, formals and bridesmaid dresses.
Unsure of a brand? Research their supply chains, environmental initiatives and company values. These can usually be found through company websites, under their ‘about’ subheading. The Good on You app allows users to search companies to discover ratings on ethicality. They want to bridge the gap between customers and sustainable fashion choices.
Above all else, the most sustainable clothing article is the one already in our closet.
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Fast Fashion and the Environment
Have you ever considered how the clothes you wear contribute to greenhouse gas emissions globally?
Over the past century, the fashion industry has seen rapid change. In today’s day and age, fast fashion - an industry rooted in the mass production of clothing to sell at a low-cost - dominates what we buy and how we buy it. And it’s an industry of dire consequences. So how did we get here?
Prior to the 21st century, clothing industries revolved around four seasons: spring, summer, fall, and winter. Considering the upcoming season, designers predicted what styles and trends might be best received by consumers. In recent decades, the fashion industry has transitioned into an industry that operates on 52 “micro-seasons” a year - or one collection a week. Clothing companies are producing clothes at a record pace, and our environment is paying for it.
According to an article by Fast Company, “apparel companies make 53 million tons of clothes into the world annually. If the industry keeps up its exponential pace of growth, it is expected to reach 160 million tons by 2050.” The problem with this exponential pace is that we end up with more clothing than we actually use, and this leads to an exceeding amount of waste. In fact, 11 million tons of clothing is thrown out in the U.S. alone. That’s a lot of clothes!
With more clothing making its way into landfills, this is where we see the greatest impact on the environment. And while some clothing is made from a biodegradable material such as cotton or wool, fast fashion primarily uses synthetic fabrics like polyester, which ultimately never breaks down and can shed microfibres when we do our laundry.
While it can seem overwhelming to make sustainable choices in the face of an all-consuming, billion-dollar fast fashion industry, we each hold the power to make choices that can lead to a more sustainable life. Let’s consider what we can do in our power, as consumers, to tackle a challenge like fast fashion.
Shop Second-Hand
Shopping at second-hand stores like Goodwill or Value Village is a great way to exercise your power as a clothing consumer. Consider hosting a challenge with your friends to see who can snag the trendiest thrift shop finds! Alternatively, if you’re a bit apprehensive about going out to the stores these days, consider shopping online at websites like ThredUp or Poshmark. There are so many thrift stores that operate online now!
Hold Clothing Swaps
Consider hosting monthly or semi-annual clothing swaps. A clothing swap is a meet-up wherein participants exchange clothing they no longer want for clothing that they will use. Reach out to your closest friends and family and see who’s interested in swapping their clothes. It’s a great way to connect with people and it’s good for the environment - a win/win!
Repair
Our clothing certainly experiences some wear and tear over time. Instead of throwing these items out, try repairing them! There are hundreds of tutorials on YouTube if you’re feeling a bit apprehensive about throwing a stitch. A little effort here goes a long way!
Rent
Instead of checking out Zara’s new spring line, consider using a clothing rental service. Clothing rental services have become increasingly popular over the past decade. While some exist solely to rent out designer brands, other companies rent out clothing from more accessible places like Urban Outfitters or Anthropologie. It’s a great way to add new items to your closet without negatively contributing to the environment.
Opt for Timeless, over Trendy
The next time you’re shopping, think twice about why you’re buying what you’re buying and ask yourself: is this item timeless or trendy? Trendy items often go out of fashion by the next season and are rarely worn after that. As a result, these items quickly end up in landfills. By investing in quality timeless items, you’ve added an item to your wardrobe that holds a bit more longevity. These changes, while small, can not only impact the environment but your wallet as well!
Advocacy
Most of the stores that populate our shopping malls are perpetrators of fast fashion. Another way for you to make an impact on the fast-fashion industry is to write to fast-fashion brands and advocate for their companies to do better. Use your power as a consumer to express your desire for them to change, and how their involvement with fast fashion will affect your relationship with their store.
There are many ways to make an impact on the fast-fashion industry. Above all else, it is important to be mindful of our decisions as consumers and think about the long-term impact of these decisions. While throwing a stitch to repair your jeans seems like a rather small step when compared to the global fast-fashion industry, these small actions can result in great change over time!
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