Microscopic plastic debris from washing clothes is accumulating in the marine environment and could be entering the food chain, a study has warned.
The findings appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.
Dr Browne, a member of the US-based research network National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, said the tiny plastic was a concern because evidence showed that it was making its way into the food chain.
“Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from [the animals’] stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells,” he told BBC News.
In order to identify how widespread the presence of microplastic was on shorelines, the team took samples from 18 beaches around the globe, including the UK, India and Singapore.
“We found that there was no sample from around the world that did not contain pieces of microplastic.”
The main plastics are polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon). Professor Richard Thompson from the University of Plymouth, UK carried out a number of experiments to see what fibres were contained in the water discharge from washing machines. “It suggests to us that a large proportion of the fibres we were finding in the environment, in the strongest evidence yet, was derived from the sewerage as a consequence from washing clothes.”
One thought on “Micro-plastic, from clothes, is entering the food chain.”