Microplastics released from textiles: impact and mitigation strategies

During the last five years, research activities have been focused on the study of structure-properties relationship of synthetic fabrics to determine the main factors that affect microplastic release. Nowadays, microplastics released from synthetic fabrics are considered emerging pollutants with a wide distribution in the environment. These enter the environment as primary microplastics, generated during the washing process, in the wastewater and, generated by fabric abrasion, in the atmospheric fallout. Several analytical procedures have been set up to evaluate the extent of microfibres released from textiles during washings at lab scale [1], during laundering at real scale [2,3], and finally during textile wearing. Their application has allowed the determination of the effective contribution of the washing process to microplastic pollution as well as the identification of specific trends in microplastic release as a function of textile nature, structure and geometry, laundering detergents and additives, washing conditions and parameters. In order to reduce the impact of microplastics released from textiles, several mitigation strategies have been designed, by approaching this problem at its sources such as the fabric surface and the washing machine. In this respect, new finishing treatments were developed, based on the usage of natural and biodegradable polymers. The formation of a uniform and thin coating layer on fabric surface was proved to be effective in reducing more than 80% the amount of microfibres released during washing tests [4,5]. In addition, new filtration systems for laundry machine were designed and their effectiveness in reducing the amount of microfibres in wastewater was demonstrated.