Quantification of different microplastic fibres discharged from textiles in machine wash and tumble drying

Abstract

Microplastic fibres released in synthetic cloth washing have been shown to be a source of microplastics into the environment. The annual emission of polyester fibres from household washing machines has earlier been estimated to be 150,000 kg in a country with a population of 5.5 × 106 (Finland). The objectives of this study were (1) to quantify the emissions of synthetic textile fibres discharged from five sequential machine washes (fibre number and length) and tumble dryings (fibre mass) and (2) to determine the collection efficiency of two commercial fibre traps. The synthetic fabrics were five types of polyester textiles, one polyamide and one polyacryl. The number of fibres released from the test fabrics in the first wash varied in the range from 1.0 × 105 to 6.3 × 106 kg−1. The fibre lengths showed that the fleece fabrics released, on average, longer fibres than the technical sports t-shirts. The mass of fibres ranged from 10 to 1700 mg/kg w/w in the first drying. Fibre emissions showed a decreasing trend both in sequential washes and dryings. The ratio of the fibre emissions in machine wash to tumble drying varied between the fabrics: the ratio was larger than one to polyester and polyamide technical t-shirts whereas it was much lower to the other tested textiles. GuppyFriend washing bag and Cora Ball trapped 39% and 10% of the polyester fibres discharged in washings, respectively.

Characterization of Microplastics Released Based on Polyester Fabric Construction during Washing and Drying

“…Moisture seeping into the fabric during washing makes them lose their structure, which facilitates the release of fibers. This differed from the results of Kärkkäinen and Sillanpää (2021), who demonstrated that drying was accompanied by more mechanical stress than washing.…”

“…As observed during washing, drying presented the same correlation between the degrees of freedom of the fibers and microplastics released, depending on the fabric construction. decrease the amount of microplastic fibers released as the number of washing cycles increases until reaching a constant level [18].…”

“…This is consistent with the sequential washing results of other studies. Sequential washing has been shown to consistently decrease the amount of microplastic fibers released as the number of washing cycles increases until reaching a constant level [18].…”

“…O'Brien et al (2020) showed that only low concentrations (1.6 ± 1.8 fibers/m 3 ) of microplastic fibers were released into the room air during tumble drying and that the residence time of large particles/fibers (considerably larger than 10 µm) in the air was typically short [18,19]. Therefore, the additional drying process before and after washing suggests its use as an alternative to address microplastic emissions from wastewater effluents.…”

Polystyrene and Polyethylene Microplastics Decrease Cell Viability and Dysregulate Inflammatory and Oxidative Stress Markers of MDCK and L929 Cells In Vitro

“…As synthetic human-made polymers, microplastic contamination of the environment has numerous diverse sources of origin, including car tires, effluents from clothes washers and dryers, and the slow degradation of littered cigarette butts (Belzagui et al 2021 ; Karkkainen and Sillanpaa 2020 ; Koski et al 2021 ; Mengistu et al 2021 ). Microplastics are not always byproducts, as they can be incorporated specifically for their properties into products such as coatings, cosmetics, cleaning agents, and medical applications (Zarus et al 2021 ).…”