Microplastics from laundry are flooding into the Arctic

Snow covered mountains at Billefjorden at sunset and clouds reflected in the Arctic sea, central fjord of Isfjorden, Svalbard / Spitsbergen, Norway. | Photo by: Sven-Erik Arndt/Arterra/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Polyester fibers are making their way from laundry machines in North America and Europe all the way up to the Arctic, according to a new study. Synthetic fibers made up a whopping 92 percent of microplastic pollution found in Arctic seawater, of which polyester was the most common.

“What you and I wear, how we wash our clothes, and what we buy at the clothing store is really having profound consequences”

That means that textiles, laundry, and wastewater are likely big culprits when it comes microplastics polluting the world’s oceans, according to study authors. The polyester fibers they found in the Arctic are the same size as fibers found in water from laundry machines and wastewater treatment plants. Much of it is drifting into the...

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