Quantification of microfibres released during washing of synthetic clothes in real conditions and at lab scale

In this work, a systematic study aimed at comparing the amount of microfibres released from synthetic fabrics during washing tests performed by using a household washing machine and a lab scale Gyrowash system, a laboratory simulator of a real washing machine, is reported. The obtained results allow to conclude that the washing tests performed at lab scale are an effective analytical procedure to perform a low-time/low-cost estimation of the microfibre release from synthetic fabrics.