6.2% of microplastics in Denmark come from textiles.
Plastic…! In your clothes? Yep…and there is a lot of it🌍
6.2% of the microplastics we emit in Denmark come from textiles.
So check whether your clothes contain polyester, nylon or acrylic? It produces microplastics.
But what can you do to minimize it?
1. Wash your clothes less.
Many people wash their clothes far too much and often you can just hang them to air out.
2. Buy clothes made from natural materials.
Go for cotton, wool, tencel, lyocell and linen. Then you get rid of microplastics completely.
3. Fill the machine when you need to wash.
The more full the machine is, the less friction there is on the clothes and therefore fewer fibers come off the clothes.
4. Avoid long washes and drop the dryer.
It is bad for both the clothes and the energy.
5. Wear your clothes longer and buy better products.
The best advice in relation to sustainability is to buy fewer things and make sure that what you buy is of good quality. Make demands on the brands you buy from. Make demands that they have a more sustainable production and make demands on their sub-suppliers regarding working conditions and the environment.
Jyllands-Posten has made an excellent little article about micro-plastics in clothes... See it here:
https://jyllands-posten.dk/livsstil/ECE11123198/skaer-ned-paa-mikroplast-fra-vasketoejet/
Remember that sustainability is rarely black and white. It is complicated. There are many solutions, many dilemmas.
But the problem is black and white.
We think and talk too much.
We do too little.
It's time to do.
Because if we don't, it's too late.