Patagonia has recognized its role here and is working the problem.
As @mallyboon pointed out, and as Patagonia recommends, there’s Guppyfriend as a washing bag to corral plastic fibers from whatever you put in the bag, then put in the washer.
Patagonia also has recommended this washing machine “permanent” filter:
https://www.septicsafe.com/washing-machine-filter/
… as @Lexisaurus mentioned upthread (oops! missed that on first read, sorry)
What we learned
Our testing resulted in these important findings:
- Textiles shed between 31,000 and 3,500,000 fibers per load during normal laundering in household washing machines.
- Not all textiles shed equally. For example, ‘fluffy’ textiles like fleece, as well as textiles made of spun staple yarns and textiles pre-treated with brushing are the highest-shedding types. These findings will be important for designing new fabrics that perform well but release less microfiber pollution.
- Some fabrics shed a large amount during the very first wash, and then shed little. This fact suggests that a pre-treatment during manufacturing may be able to capture and recycle what would otherwise go down consumers’ drains.
Updates since that February 2019 posting:
Microfiber cloths…
… are also a big problem:
https://storyofstuff.org/blog/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-microfiber-pollution/
Also problematic is antimony, a heavy metal, present in most PET even from first use (prior to being incorporated into recycled fiber fleeces, or recycled fiber carpeting, or recycled fiber insulation such as Thinsulate ).
If you are of a mind to reduce your exposure, or arguably more importantly the exposure of children or if you are trying to recover from a life-threatening illness, to contaminants, consider reducing the plastics footprint in your living [and breathing] space wherever possible to reduce your body burden.
https://www.pbs.org/tradesecrets/problem/bodyburden.html
If you believe that plastic is inert, as my father had (PhD Organic Chemistry, Northwestern University), and “just passes right through the human body” well heck don’t give any of this another thought.
We recently installed a full water filtration system (RO) for our drinking water supply. I have begun the process of mailing or dropping off all our fleece back to Patagonia, LL Bean, etc. with a short note explaining why. We have switched to wool replacements (which are highly susceptible to moths but oh well) and some down “sweaters” (Marmot and REI).
ETA: typos and more typos
ETA 2.5: just noticed upthread the mention of the laundry filter
