69

It seems like microfiber materials should be a major contributor to micro plastics, especially with all the laundering of the microfiber cloths and clothes.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 67 points 1 year ago

Others have pointed out that microfiber would already be considered microplastic, but maybe you’re aware of that and are thinking that microplastics are plastics that are manufactured to be microscopic (like fiberglass is manufactured as microscopic glass).

But all (petroleum-based) plastics break down into microplastics, whatever scale they’re originally manufactured at. Microfiber is no different from other synthetic cloth in that respect—while it should be avoided like other synthetics, there’s no reason to single it out.

[-] silentknyght@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

I'm thinking of it like the micro plastics that were purposely added to bath wash and soap, and now are banned for use in that purpose. I'm not entirely sure I understand the logic behind why those are (justifiably) banned, but microfiber cloths are not.

My stupid question is because I haven't seen any other news articles specifically talking about microfiber and its contribution to micro plastics.

[-] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

There is a distinction between “primary” microplastics like you’re describing, and “secondary” microplastics caused by the breakdown of larger items.

From Wikipedia:

Two classifications of microplastics are currently recognized. Primary microplastics include any plastic fragments or particles that are already 5.0 mm in size or less before entering the environment. These include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets (also known as nurdles). Secondary microplastics arise from the degradation (breakdown) of larger plastic products through natural weathering processes after entering the environment.

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2023
69 points (87.9% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35868 readers
664 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS