Understanding Microplastics
Microplastics are now an unavoidable part of our environment, making it essential to understand their impact on health, the ecosystem, and everyday products such as clothing.
In 2024 alone, a number of landmark studies reported that microplastics have found their way into essentially every niche in the natural world. These small plastic particles, along nanoplastics, originate from various sources and can spread to numerous locations. Their presence raises significant concerns regarding potential risks.
Since microplastics are now unavoidable, it’s essential to understand their impact on the environment, health, and everyday products, like clothing. So, what are microplastics, and their even tinier offspring, nanoplastics? Where do microplastics come from, where do they end up, and what risks might they pose?
A Brief History of Plastic Pollution
Remember the public outcries about the environmental impact of one-time-use, disposable plastic goods back in 2018?
In response, Seattle passed laws banning plastic straws and utensils in restaurants and, within a year, other major municipalities in California, New Jersey, Florida, and other states followed suit (1-2). Then large corporations such as Starbucks, American Airlines, Hyatt Hotels and Disney announced plans to phase out these diminutive ecological offenders (3).
While these bans were a step in the right direction for the planet, today a new species of invasive plastic pollution has emerged: microplastics.
Environmental and human health researchers are raising alarms about microplastics louder and more urgently than ever before.
What are Microplastics and Nanoplastics?
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles less than 5 millimeters in size that result from the physical breakdown of larger ‘macroplastics,’ like straws and utensils.
Following the logic from macro to micro, nanoplastics are plastic particles smaller than 1 micrometer that emerge as microplastics break down and fracture into even smaller particles.
Scientists first recorded the phenomenon of microplastics in marine environments in the early 1970s (4). From their observations, the researchers predicted that “increasing production of plastics, combined with present waste-disposal practices, will undoubtedly lead to increases in the concentration of these particles (5).”
Over three decades later Professor Richard Thompson of the University of Plymouth coined the term "microplastics" in his 2004 paper, “Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic? (6)”
Why Are Microplastics a Concern?
Microplastics and nanoplastics waft through the air we breathe, gather in water we drink, and pervade the food we eat.
They’ve been identified in every fish, bird, and mammal studied to date, and have been identified throughout nearly all human tissues, including in the blood, saliva, liver, kidneys, lungs, GI tract, placenta and reproductive organs, the last of which has sparked significant discourse within contemporary online communities (7-12).
Health Impacts of Microplastics
So, what’s wrong with having a bit of microplastic buildup in your body? Well, almost everything.
Experiential observation and analysis suggests that microplastics can cause oxidative damage, DNA damage, and changes in gene activity in cell cultures, marine wildlife, and animal models, all of which are known risk indicators for cancer.
Additionally, some researchers are looking into experimentally-derived suspicions that microplastics may carry antibiotic-resistant bacteria on their surfaces.
Further threats arise from chemicals in and on microplastic particles, including BPA, phthalates, and heavy metals. These compounds are known or suspected to disrupt the nervous, reproductive, and other systems (13).
And whereas microplastics have been found in human and animal tissues, organs, and byproducts, nanoplastics have been observed going deeper.
They’re so small that they’re capable of entering individual human cells via at least two distinct pathways, even working their way into cellular nuclei (14). These findings provide further evidence for hypotheses suggesting a link between these particles and cancer development.
Apparel & Microplastics: Not All Recycled Clothes Are Created Equal
Today, seemingly eco-friendly, outdoorsy lifestyle apparel brands have developed a knack for making clothes from recycled polyester and other synthetic textile waste and then marketing them as sustainable clothing options.
But, looking at the microplastic footprint of recycled polyester reveals deeply disconnected messaging and reality.
According to primary research published in 2023, recycled polyester releases almost 2.3 times more microplastics than virgin polyester during wash cycles (15). This increased shedding is attributed to the specific recycling process for synthetic-fiber textiles, which weakens the fibers through thermal exposure and shear degradation.
On the other end of the spectrum, producing recycled clothes made entirely from discarded cotton textiles can minimize or even eliminate the release of microplastics and nanoplastics altogether.
Everywhere Apparel has meticulously engineered recycled cotton since our inception in 2019. By sourcing cotton inputs from the 17 million tons of domestic landfill-bound textile waste and facilitating textile recycling programs, we’ve set up an entirely circular supply chain in order to provide an entirely new class of sustainable clothing – one that produces dramatically fewer microplastics than anything else on Earth (16).
We take sustainability seriously, from investing in some of the largest carbon capturing natural resources on the planet, all the way down to these microscopic plastic particles.
Leveraging expertise in material science, logistics, manufacturing, distribution, and end-of-life recycling, we’re thrilled to invite you into the first truly sustainable, circular ecosystem for recycled cotton clothes.
Stay up to date on our products, partnerships, and thoughts and browse our line of sustainable recycled clothes. Join the movement to clean the planet through ethical fashion.
Sources
- Seattle Public Utilities. Straws & Utensils.
- Grist. Did plastic straw bans work? Yes, but not in the way you’d think.
- Duke University, Nicolas School of the Environment. 10 Years Out: Have Plastic Straw Bans Saved the World Yet?
- Science. Plastics on the Sargasso sea surface.
- Ibid.
- Science. Lost at Sea: Where Is All the Plastic?
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. Microplastic Pollution: Chemical Characterization and Impact on Wildlife.
- Harvard Medicine. Microplastics Everywhere.
- eLifeSciences. Microplastics are present in women’s and cows’ follicular fluid and polystyrene microplastics compromise bovine oocyte function in vitro
- Nature Portfolio. Detection of microplastics in the human penis.
- The Guardian. Microplastics found in every human testicle in study.
- Know Your Meme. Microplastics Found in Testicles.
- Harvard Medicine. Microplastics Everywhere.
- Ibid
- The Journal of the Textile Institute. Investigation on the microfiber release under controlled washings from the knitted fabrics produced by recycled and virgin polyester yarns
United States Environmental Protection Agency. Textiles: Material-Specific Data