How
much microplastic is there in your laundry basket?
By Siri Elise Dybdal
By time you wash clothes, you are releasing microplastics into the sea, but we
know little about the amount and distribution of such material from different
types of textile.
Research scientists are now working on measuring and capturing microplastics in our laundry.
By time you wash clothes, you are releasing microplastics into the sea, but we
know little about the amount and distribution of such material from different
types of textile. Research scientists are now working on measuring and capturing microplastics in our laundry.
Globally,
microplastics from laundry represent the largest primary source of such
pollution, together with particles from car tyres.
A study carried out by IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) indicates that in high-income countries with good waste management systems, primary microplastics represent a more serious problem than discarded plastic articles.
A study carried out by IUCN (the International Union for Conservation of Nature) indicates that in high-income countries with good waste management systems, primary microplastics represent a more serious problem than discarded plastic articles.
In
Fjong’s showroom at Frogner in Oslo, fine dresses in all the colours of the
rainbow are on display. The company’s business is lending and renting used
dresses and everyday garments both from its own showroom and via its website.
The objective is to reduce our overconsumption and provide a good alternative
to buying new clothes.
However,
the frequent washing and dry cleaning of clothes is a challenge when it comes
to minimising the environmental impact of the company as regards chemical
consumption, water consumption and emissions of microplastics.
The rental company has now become a “research lab” in a new joint-venture project involving SINTEF research scientists and industry participants, with the aim of making the laundry process more sustainable.
The rental company has now become a “research lab” in a new joint-venture project involving SINTEF research scientists and industry participants, with the aim of making the laundry process more sustainable.
Among
other things, Fjong will test a filter system developed by SINTEF in its
washing process. The system passes wastewater from the washing machine through
a series of special filters that capture plastic fibres. This can provide
important knowledge regarding the amounts produced, and how the various
material types contribute to microfibre in the wastewater.
The
initiative taker and manager of the project is the innovative company Clean
Oslo, whose aim is to find a method that prevents discharges of microfibre in
wastewater from launderettes and industrial laundries.
Lack
of knowledge
“The
current practice of washing textiles is not sustainable when it comes to
chemical consumption, water consumption, or microfibre in waste water. We know
that synthetic textiles make a significant contribution to the spread of
microplastics. A fleece jacket can release as many as one million fibres in a
single wash. Many of the plastic particles that loosen from microfibres are not
captured by waste treatment plants because they are too small. Instead, much of
this material ends up in the sea as microplastic pollution,” says Camilla
Coward, founder and CEO of Clean Oslo.
One of the benefits of the SINTEF filters is that they are not discarded when the washing machine gets old, but can be re-used.
One of the benefits of the SINTEF filters is that they are not discarded when the washing machine gets old, but can be re-used.
However,
we still lack knowledge of the amounts that are rinsed out and of the spread of
such fibres from different textiles.
“Somebody
has to start showing the world that recycling clothes is a viable business.”
“Perhaps
chemical-rich natural fibres can be equally harmful? We want to find methods
for the sustainable textile laundering of the future,” Coward emphasises.
“There
is a need to think differently in the washing and maintenance phase, just as
there is in the consumer phase. We need to ask more questions about our need
for white tablecloths and shirts. In a way it’s a case of clean clothes or a
clean planet,” she says, and goes on to say that the project has received
support from the urban environment department (Bymiljøetaten) in Oslo,
Innovation Norway, the Norwegian Retailers’ Environment Fund (Handelens
Miljøfond) and the Ferd System.
From
research to the daily wash
Stephan
Kubowicz, a research scientist at SINTEF, has been involved in the development
of the washing machine filter. He explains that the filter was originally
developed for use in the Microplastic project, which studied microplastic in
textiles, but was then used in the laboratory with test textiles.
“This
is a specially developed version for use in real life situations. To begin
with, we are filtering in three phases, using coarse, medium and fine filters –
that is 500, 100 and 20 microns. The finest captures microplastics. Anything
captured by the filters helps us understand what is being discharged, and how
the various materials differ. The filters can be connected to several machines.
As we gain experience, we will adapt the process and make changes. Maybe we
need only one or two filters. We will also find out if the handling is good
enough, how often the filters need to be emptied, and so on.”
According to the SINTEF scientist, existing washing machines have only one filter for coarse fibre, and there has been little awareness of the fact that washing also discharges a lot of microfibre.
“However,
we are seeing that a lot of fibre is left behind when we use a tumble-drier.
The filter itself is nothing magical,” Kubowicz explains:
“They
consist of a very fine metal grating. We have produced a prototype for
high-volume laundering. The transition from a scientific project and a filter
that can be used in everyday applications is not difficult. The aim is to
develop this into something that can be used in launderettes,” he says.
Washing
creates piles of waste
Filtration
takes place only when the water comes out of a machine. This is a conscious
choice, according to Coward:
In
densely populated areas we believe the solution is to wash collectively and
filter the water outside the washing machine. A bit like a launderette from
1950, but updated to 2030.
Today, only a small plastic device has to be installed, whereas in those days everybody would have had to buy a new washing machine. That is not the solution. We also need to use fewer chemicals.
According to WWF, in the United States alone, 7 million bottles of laundry detergent are sold every day and an ordinary family of five washes 500 loads of laundry every year. This results in 700 million plastic containers on American landfills every year.
Today, only a small plastic device has to be installed, whereas in those days everybody would have had to buy a new washing machine. That is not the solution. We also need to use fewer chemicals.
According to WWF, in the United States alone, 7 million bottles of laundry detergent are sold every day and an ordinary family of five washes 500 loads of laundry every year. This results in 700 million plastic containers on American landfills every year.
“Clothes
don’t have unlimited lifetime, but if we wash them carefully and repair or
adjust garments that are worn or damaged, we are contributing to maximising
their lifetime – so that several people can enjoy the same garments!
One
of the benefits of the SINTEF filters is they are not discarded when the
washing machine gets old, but can still be used. Coward points out that a lot
of people cannot be bothered to clean the filter, or flush the lint in the
toilet.
“And
that defeats the object. So the aim is not to get private users to adopt this –
we must quite simply entertain bigger and more interesting ambitions,” she
believes.
Thinking
new and big
Coward says that the collaboration with Fjong was a “natural partnership”, since the idea behind the business is to reduce the environmental impact of textiles. Both Fjong and Clean Oslo see themselves as “disruptors” – getting us to stop and think differently.
“We see ourselves as “disruptors”. We want people to think differently when it comes to fashion and clothes. The entire textile industry is insanely polluting. We want to help people think differently,” says Hanne Elisabeth Høiesen, Sustainability Manager at Fjong.
“Somebody has to start showing the world that recycling clothes is a viable business.”
“Imagine the enormous amounts of textiles that are used, for example, in hospitals, hotels and so on, which may contain 50 per cent artificial fibres that are not filtered out. Who is responsible – the laundries, the manufacturers? We need a new approach to this.
She tells us that the company is now two and a half years old and has a growing range of items:
“There is great demand for evening clothes, but we also see an increasing trend in renting everyday garments. We consider this to be a positive thing in that recycling is becoming increasingly normalised! At Fjong you can both rent garments and rent out your own. The way this functions is that the income is shared equally between the owner of the clothes and Fjong.”
However,
a recent noticeable trend is that people often like the same garments:
“Clothes don’t have unlimited lifetime, but if we wash them carefully and repair or adjust garments that are worn or damaged, we are contributing to maximising their lifetime – so that several people can enjoy the same garments! We see that many of the same garments are being rented out. We Norwegians think alike. Which garments become more worn also has a lot to do with their production and the quality of materials and needlework. Poor material and quality result in a shorter life cycle,” she says.
Who
is responsible?
Part
of the philosophy of Fjong involves careful laundering methods:
“When
it comes to washing, we have mainly tested cold, de-ionised water. This
attracts negatively charged particles, drawing the dirt out of the material.
Clean Oslo is the only laundry operator in Norway offering this method of
washing clothes, completely free from detergents. We have been using this
method for years. For us, filtering out microfibre is the next step,” says
Høiesen, adding that until now, no method has been available for doing this.
“Imagine
the enormous amounts of textiles that are used, for example, in hospitals,
hotels and so on, which may contain 50 per cent artificial fibres that are not
filtered out. Who is responsible – the laundries, the manufacturers? We need a
new approach to this. In the future we envision collective laundries, and that
this approach will also become a way of life. The homes of the future must also
have communal facilities in which clothes are washed together and where people
rent clothes from each other and share clothes,” says Høiesen.