Microplastics in the air

We know now that there are microplastics in the air that we breathe and that these can damage our health.

Much of this is caused by synthetic clothing that contains microfibres. Around 16% of the plastic produced in the world is plastic textile fibres.

We breathe in these microfibres, both indoors and outdoors and it has been shown that 29% of fibres in air is plastic.

Indoors, the microplastics in the air come from plastic objects in our homes, including toys, furniture, bags and products that we use. In addition to this, they come from our clothes.

“One load of washing could release up to 17 million tiny plastic fibres”

Most of the particles that we breathe in find their way back out again, but some do remain in the lungs and stay there for a long time.

Babies and children are more at risk because they spend time on the floor where microplastics settle as dust.

This video from the Plastic Soup Foundation tells you more about the problem

What can I do?

There are a few simple things that you can do to help this problem, for example:

Wash at low temperatures – this helps release fewer fibres during the wash

Use special bags for your washing – these can help to catch the microfibres in your washing. Try Guppy Bags or Cora Ball.

There are more ideas in this article about Microfibres from Friends of the Earth

Search the Blog Posts on this site for tips on changes you can make.

Sources used for this post:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/microplastic-pollution-in-air-pollutes-our-lungs
https://www.plasticsoupfoundation.org/en/files/synthetic-fibers/