A staggering 14 million tons of microplastics litter the ocean floor, largely due to the fashion industry’s harmful practices. Heriot-Watt University’s innovative project seeks to transform fashion, making both producers and consumers more environmentally conscious.
For four years, a small team headed by Dr. Lisa Macintyre, associate professor of textiles at the University’s School of Textiles and Design in the Galashiels campus, has overseen painstaking research to co-develop the world’s first visual “fiber fragmentation scale.”
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The five-point scale assesses the volume of fiber fragments shed from different clothing materials, with observers visually grading each between one and five. Grade one having the highest volume of shed fibers to grade five having the least.
Microplastics are tiny plastic particles, less than five millimeters long, that can harm the environment and animal health. They come from two main sources. Primary microplastics are tiny particles designed for commercial use, such as those found in cosmetics, exfoliating scrubs, and facial cleansers. Secondary microplastics arise from the breakdown of larger plastic products through natural weathering processes or by washing clothes made from synthetic fibers. Common sources include single-use plastic bags, plastic bottles, and synthetic clothing.
Microplastics are a major environmental concern because they are so small and widespread. They can be ingested by wildlife, including fish, shellfish, and birds, and can block their digestive systems or cause other health problems. Microplastics can also absorb pollutants from the environment, which can then be released into the bodies of animals that ingest them.
Revolutionizing material processing, this new method outperforms traditional techniques, especially for large volumes. By rapidly identifying low-shedding materials, manufacturers can accelerate product development and reduce costs.
“The microplastics problem is massive,” said Dr Macintyre. “Fashion and textiles is one of the biggest sources of secondary microplastics in the environment with fragments of plastic fibers, like polyester and nylon, being shed from clothing. There are fiber fragments absolutely everywhere, from icebergs to the deepest ocean to human lungs and our food, they’re in everything.
“Visual scales are already used in the fashion industry to measure how much bobbling a material may suffer on its surface for example or, perhaps the most well-known is the grey scale, which measures color fading or staining, but there was no such tool for fiber shedding.
