Study Finds Synthetic Clothes Contributed 4,000 Metric Tons of Plastic Microfibers in California–

Name: JOIN US! OSFR Monthly Board Meeting – PUBLIC WELCOME!
Start: 2024-04-24
End: 2024-04-24
Location: Rum 138

November 2, 2020 Water Quality Threats - Plastics by Friends & Other Advocates Leave a Comment

Microplastics in toothpaste wiki give credit In: Study Finds Synthetic Clothes Contributed 4,000 Metric Tons of Plastic Microfibers in California-- | Our Santa Fe River, Inc. (OSFR) | Protecting the Santa Fe River

Photo credit Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported .

…the average person inadvertently consumes more than 5,800 microfiber particles — every year.

The harm that this is doing to our health may not be apparent in this moment, but the time has come for us to address the problem

Read the entire article here at EchoWatch.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum

MICROPLASTICS

Study Finds Synthetic Clothes Contributed 4,000 Metric Tons of Plastic Microfibers in California

Jordan Davidson

Oct. 19, 2020 11:12AM ESTCLIMATE

These microfibers, smaller than five millimeters, are shed when synthetic clothes are washed.

A new study from the University of California at Santa Barbara has found that synthetic clothes released about 4,000 metric tons of plastic microfibers into California’s environment in 2019.

For context, that’s about 80 million plastic rubber ducks in California, or 130,000 times as many stars as there are in the Milky Way galaxy, The Guardian reported. The Guardian received exclusive access to this study, although it has not been peer-reviewed or published.

These microfibers, smaller than five millimeters, are shed when synthetic clothes are washed, including “yoga pants, stretchy jeans and fleece jackets” the Guardian reported….

Those numbers might alarm consumers. According to The New York Post, a recent study in PLoS One found that the average person inadvertently consumes more than 5,800 microfiber particles — every year.

While wastewater plants have the ability to prevent microfibers from entering waterways, they are ultimately delaying the process. Wastewater treatment facilities tend to combine what they capture with treated sewage, which is eventually spread on agricultural fields. The microfibers then run off back into the waterways, The Guardian reported.

“So we’re changing it from an ocean problem to a land problem,” Roland Geyer, an industrial ecologist at UC Santa Barbara who collaborated on the report, told The Guardian. “Rather than removing the fibers, we’ve just moved their location.”

Studies that quantify microplastics in the environment help play a vital role in regulating them. For example, Politico reported that California’s State Water Resources Control Board recently approved a decision to make it the first state to define microplastics. The board will propose testing methods by July 2021; it will require water suppliers to report their microplastic levels for four years once a testing protocol is agreed upon.

Global production of synthetic fibers around the world is predicted to triple by 2050, The New York Post reported.

Friends & Other Advocates

View articles

Friends & Other Advocates - Part of Our mission here at Our Santa Fe River is to inform the public about issues pertaining to the water quality and quantity of the Santa Fe River. We do that in many ways including posting articles here on Our website. To that end, we use many articles from many different sources.

So we send out a huge THANK YOU to all of those friends and other advocates who give their time and energy by writing about what matters most to us, protecting Our Santa Fe River and letting us republish those items here on our website.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mary Hampton on Endangered Rivers In 2024: “I am pleased that the national reporter, Dinah Voyles Pulver, focuses on the environment, climate, and wild weather. In this…” Apr 19, 15:37
Terry on Thank you to all of our supporters: “Thanks for sharing the beauty of the river.” Mar 11, 12:56
Nunya Bidness on Coca Cola Biggest Plastic Polluter In 2023, Followed By Nestle: “Plastic bottles don’t throw themselves out car windows. Even if we package in aluminum they still get tossed. In my…” Feb 22, 10:33
Mary Hampton on Great News For Florida Wetlands: “A very dear friend of mine sent me a note last night to inform me about this recent ruling that…” Feb 20, 16:54
Mike Roth on Good News From Tallahassee: “Kudos! Job well done by all!” Feb 10, 08:22