Making wash day a little greener
Warning tags suggested for synthetic fabric
Your polyester shirt may one day come with a warning label. Lawmakers in California and New York have proposed state bills to raise awareness of a problem few consumers may have heard of — synthetic fabrics shedding microfibres into the water system. Garments made with polymer-based cloth can release as many as 1900 microfibres per wash that eventually end up in waterways, one study shows.
But research is still in the early stages, and few agree on the best response.
The bills proposed in those two states suggest requiring that all new clothing made of more than 50 per cent synthetic material carry an additional removable tag that reads: “This garment sheds plastic microfibres when washed.”
But the retail industry is against those proposals. “There’s a lot of questions we don’t know the answers to,” says Nate Herman, senior vice president of supply chain at the American Apparel and Footwear Association, an industry trade group. “The concern with legislation is that it’s getting ahead of the science.”
Microfibres may pose a threat to waterways and aquatic life, according to activists and supporting research. Less than 5 millimetres long, they’re not filtered by washing machines nor water treatment plants and have been found in everything from bottled water, to sea salt, to fish.
The fibres are about the size of plankton, and marine organisms may ingest them when feeding. They may end up in people as well. About 83 per cent of drinking water samples tested around t he world contained microplastics, according to a study released last year.
Clothing tags or stickers would be an opportunity to raise awareness that microfibre pollution is a problem, says Rachel Sarnoff, executive director of the plastic pollution advocacy nonprofit 5 Gyres Institute. Sarnoff’s organisation encourages consumers to wash their clothes less often, use efficient front-loading washers and add another filter designed to catch microfibres.
“If you do wear synthetics, it’s good to be aware of their impact, especially when you wash them in a machine,” says Sarnoff. “We have to look at ways to control the shedding.” Retailers say they want more research on the microfibre issue. Laws requiring labels in New York and California would effectively force the companies to label all garments they sell in the US, due to the size of those states. That’s costly, says Herman of the American Apparel and Footwear Association. And dissuading consumers from buying synthetic fabrics doesn’t acknowledge the environmental impacts of other materials, like the land and water required to grow and harvest cotton, he says.
It’s not even clear that fabrics are the most to blame. It could be that garments become more prone to shed as they age, or that top-loading washing machines agitate clothes into releasing fibres. Car tyres have also been linked to shedding microplastics, which could be a big contributing factor to the problem.
Retailers prefer the approach presented in Connecticut legislation or a similar tactic suggested in a competing California bill — increasing research or forming a working group to look into the issue.
Bloom and environmental activists acknowledge synthetic fabrics like polyester will never be banned.
“We’re all wearing polyester clothing, myself included,” Bloom says. “this is an issue that demands creativity — this is an issue we don’t solve by adding a hangtag.”