Empa delves into microplastics released from textile washing
27/06/2017
They say the presence of microplastics in wastewater can be attributed primarily to two factors: from cosmetic products that contain tiny pieces of plastic to achieve a mechanical cleaning effect, and from microplastics that are washed out of polymer textile clothing.
The researchers found the quantity of fibres released by five washing programmes was constant, while detergents increased the quantity of microfibers released. However, temperature seemed to have no effect on the number of microfibres, and neither did the duration of the wash cycles.
Lead researcher Bernd Nowack said they had thought that the longer a wash cycle lasts, the more microfibres it will release. "At first, it looked as though microfibres were generated during washing," he said. However, if this were the case, longer wash cycles should release more fibres. "Unfortunately, this means that we are not yet able to explain how the released fibres are generated."
A follow-up study has been planned to analyse the generation of microfibres in the washing machine.
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