In the recent years, loads of people have been talking about Microplastics and Microbeads. Multiple Governments even passed laws to ban them and companies have stated phasing them out. That's brilliant right?
When I started doing some research on everyday things that were damaging the oceans, I was surprised by many things.
I discovered a giant problem I had no clue even existed : Microfiber Pollution.
Microplastics, Microbeads, Microfibers, what's the difference?
Microplastics are any piece of plastic smaller than 5 mm. They can be anything from a degrading piece of plastic bottle to a thread of synthetic clothing.
Microbeads and Microfibers both are types of microplastics, the beads are sand-like particles and fibers are threads.
In short, microfibers are tiny particles coming from our clothes.
Got it. And why exactly are microfibers a big problem?
According to a 2011 study, over 60% of the plastic pollution in the oceans is microfibers coming directly from our clothing. On top of that, 85% of man-made materials found on shores were microfiber residues.
But How?
The folks over at The Story of Stuff made a lovely 3 min video explaining what's happening, it's well worth a watch!
Another scary statistic is that 1 out of 4 fish has been contaminated, and that one third of the food we eat contains microfibers. Yikes!
Now for the good news : There are solutions to microfibers!
The easiest things you can do right now are:
1. When going shopping, try going for Natural Fiber garnments, they cost a bit more upfront but will last you a lot longer.
2. Buy the Guppy Friend. It's a filter bag in which you can put your clothes before washing. It catches the majority of microfibers from your clothes.
3. Don't overwash your clothes. It's not good for the fabric either way.
