There is a prevailing belief or sentiment that the majority of the microfibers in our environment are derived from fibers discharged during laundering. Synthetic microfibers are known to be sourced from polyester and other manmade fabrics.
Question: Do you agree with the prevailing “wisdom”. I would like to conduct a quick survey to determine what my fellowscientist think is more likely and why: Are the majority of fibers found in the environment generated when clothing is washed or during normal wear.
The following facts should be considered when formulating your answers.
□ During its life, an article of clothing spend less than 1 % of its time cycle in the wash. (~
I wonder - is there some conflation of issues going on here? Certainly, there is a prevailing belief that microfiber pollution in our seas and oceans is largely an outcome of laundering which, I suppose, arises from the discharge of treated laundering effluent into waterways. However, this is concerned with microfiber concentrations in waterways, rather than the broader environment. Textiles will shed fibres under any 'agitation' (some textiles more than others) and, as you rightly identify, this has been used to aid in forensics for a number of years.
Currently, this prevailing belief is just a guess. There seems to be little proof from any side as to the source of the microfibers.
In treatment plants employing a tertiary (filtration) treatment, there is very little particulate content in the effluent. However, not all municipal wastewater treatment employs these measures.
On the flip side, there are volumes of air particulate data that should reveal clues about microfibers in ambient air and their transport to surface waters and coastal oceans. Hi Vol air samples may be viewed under a microscope. Passive, dry deposition type samplers may be even more helpful to this end.
Agreed that there is limited evidence. There is some work going on into microfibre release from performance clothing through laundering at the University of Leeds (sponsored, I believe, through the European Outdoor Group) that may shed light on the effect of laundering, but I am not sure how far this has progressed.
Agreed there still remains the research need surrounding the point and non-point sources of the microfibers into marine systems. Synthetic fibers may also contribute to microplastic pollution,entering the environment from textile laundering facilities or from home wastewater. High fiber-count synthetic materials (such as fleece) can shed as many as 1900 fibers per machine wash load. There also the influence air and wind patterns. The one aspect to collecting for microplastics in the marine environment is following a protocol that allows you to recover irregularly shaped plastics like fibers. These fibers are not uniformed in shape, while it may be so many microns long, it can be tremendously smaller in width, making it difficult to collect and categorize or data may represent a small sample of what is truly in the environment.