Microfibres from apparel and home textiles: Prospects for including microplastics in environmental sustainability assessment
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review and conceptual framework paper (graded by design analogy for non-clinical scholarship)
OpenAlex W2896825211 · doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.10.166
What was done
The authors conducted a critical review evaluating factors driving microfibre release across textile lifecycles (production, use, and disposal), synthesizing evidence on ecological and human health risks, and examining how to integrate microplastic pollution metrics into environmental sustainability assessment tools for apparel and home textiles.
What was found
Synthetic petroleum-based polymers (polyester, polyamide, acrylic) comprise approximately two-thirds of all textile items. Microfibres (<5 mm) and nanofibres (<100 nm) are estimated to constitute up to 35% of primary marine microplastics, represent a major share of shoreline microplastics, and persist for decades in soils amended with wastewater sludge. The review proposed that tracking the mass or particle count of released microfibres alongside environmental persistence data can serve as an interim midpoint indicator for sustainability assessments.
Why it matters
It offers a practical approach to incorporate microfibre shedding into standard textile life-cycle assessments, providing an interim metric while standardized ecotoxicological and analytical methodologies are developed.
Limits
The paper is a narrative review rather than a systematic review or meta-analysis. It provides no new empirical or experimental data, relies on broad secondary estimates, and notes that standardized analytical methods and environmentally realistic ecotoxicological data remain unavailable.
Cited by
- context Synthetic clothing is the primary source of microplastics entering the ocean.