Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/06/fleece-clothing-a-serious-pollutant-its-made-of-plastic-after-all.html
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Even organic textiles can be a big problem in certain environments. Carlsbad Caverns learned years ago that bringing thousands of tourists into a mostly isolated underground cave system gradually results in a whole bunch of lint that just sits there forever unless it’s painstakingly removed by hand.
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I always found it odd that Patagonia touted their environmental bona fides while also making most of their gear from plastic. Better late than never, I guess.
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I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently-- my Patagonia fleece jacket (that I love) is getting thread-bare, so obviously the threads are going somewhere, they don’t just cease to exist.
The microplastic issue is way more serious than we think.
There have been other stories in the news too-- they found fleece threads in a remote valley in the Himalayas where humans never go, and entomologists are finding ants tangled up in bits of polyester. Tire pollution was found to be wiping out some freshwater fish. The list goes on and on.
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Remember when people would defend the oil industry because even if burning it for energy was destroying the environment we depended on, it was still good because we needed it for plastic? Good times. Well, better than they’re getting, anyway.
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If only there was an alternative. Maybe something already called fleece. Maybe something that currently is being thrown away or burnt because plastic clothing is even cheaper.
Nuh, nothing comes to mind
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My wife found a dead blackbird in our garden. I had to deal with the corpse. I found its foot was entangled in a piece of fine plastic mesh. I think it got caught while foraging and thirsted to death, or maybe died of fear and exhaustion.
I have no idea where the mech came from – it isn’t something we use – but this is a new build estate so most likely it was something used in the construction industry, casually discarded into the living environment.
I felt guilty for days, as the blackbird’s mate stood sentry around our garden, singing for its lost partner.
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Oh man, had to publish this today when my cotton hoodie is in the wash and am wearing my Patagonia pullover instead. Do’h!
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Plastic mesh is often used in erosion control matting as a core material to give it strength. The matting itself is mostly straw, coir, or other natural fiber, and the inner mesh of plastic prevents it from simply washing away in the rain. More environmentally friendly matting is made with a biodegradable jute mesh instead of plastic, but plastic is cheaper and lighter (the hallmark of low-bidder contractors everywhere.) It could easily have been put there by the gardeners hired to landscape the estate grounds.
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I look at the green upland deserts and the flooding downstream and think to myself “just what we need, more fucking sheep destroying the environment….”
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That’s the thing, though. We don’t need more. We just need to stop throwing away 90% of the wool, as well do now
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True, but… almost all of the wool used in clothing is very specific: from a specific sheep breed (merino) and with very fine individual fibers. The wool from other breeds isn’t generally considered commercially useful for clothing because it isn’t super soft like merino, and that’s what makes up that 90% that is being burned or buried. Yes, there are niche markets for them among the fiber folk, but shifting the consumer mindset that an outerwear layer doesn’t need to be butter soft and would actually perform better if it wasn’t isn’t happening soon. There are efforts to find markets for the coarser (also much more durable) wool beyond rugs: building insulation, fertilizer pellets come to mind immediately.
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I don’t have the source at hand, but I think they found microplastics inside a miscarried fetus.
My proposal would be quilted lounge wear with flannel on the outside and this coarse surplus filling the cells.
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I recently talked to some textile manufacturers who let me know that plant and animal fibers, once treated and dyed, are also basically not biodegradable anymore, and produce microfibers not much better than microplastics.
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