Delicate cycle not so kind

LONDON: Wrongly using a delicate cycle for everyday laundry is causing hundreds of thousands of extra microfibres to be released into our water systems and end up in the sea, scientists have found.

Although ordinary washing cycles cause clothes to be bashed together and create more friction, they use less water than gentler programmes which agitate the garments less.

Researchers at Newcastle University found the volume of water used, rather than the spinning action, was the key factor in plucking the tiny plastic particles from manmade material.

Millions of plastic microfibres are shed when we wash clothes containing materials such as nylon, polyester and acrylic.

The tiny fibres can ultimately enter the marine environment, be ingested by tiny animals and end up in our food chain. Two years ago, Newcastle University scientists showed these fibres had reached the deepest parts of our ocean.

PhD student Max Kelly, working with Procter & Gamble’s Newcastle lab, measured the release of microfibres from polyester clothes.

They found the higher the volume of water, the more fibres released, regardless of the speed and abrasive forces of the washing machine.

Using a hitech camera, they counted 1.4 million fibres from a delicate wash of a polyester garment, 800,000 from a normal cotton wash and 600,000 from a cold express programme.

Consumers should make sure they use the correct cycle for their laundry and avoid washing half loads so there is not a high volume of water to garments, researchers found.