A New York City bill to ban laundry pods is just one of many proposed solutions. Detergent pods are only the start of clothing\u2019s microplastic pollution problem.<\/p>
“This story was originally published by Grist<\/a>. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here<\/a>.”<\/em><\/p> Last month, Democratic New York City Council Member James Gennaro introduced a bill<\/a> that would change the way countless New Yorkers do their laundry \u2014 by banning laundry detergent pods.<\/p> More specifically, the bill \u2014 dubbed \u201cPods Are Plastic\u201d \u2014 proposed a ban on dishwashing and laundry detergent pods coated in polyvinyl alcohol, or PVA, a type of plastic that disintegrates when submerged in water. Laundry and soap companies have long argued that the PVA coating is totally safe and 100 percent biodegradable, but proponents of the bill say that neither of those claims is true.<\/p> \u201cProducts and profit should not come at the expense of the environment,\u201d Sarah Paiji Yoo, co-founder of a plastic-free cleaning product company called Blueland, said in a statement. Blueland, which manufactures PVA-free laundry and dishwasher tablets, helped write the bill and has been a vocal critic of PVA for years. In 2022, the company helped pen a petition asking the EPA<\/a> to remove PVA from a list of chemicals it has deemed safe to use. (The EPA rejected the request<\/a> last year.)<\/p> The Pods Are Plastic bill faces uncertain prospects in the New York City Council. If it does pass, however, it will only go a short way toward mitigating laundry-related microplastic pollution. Research suggests that billions of plastic microfibers shear off of our clothing every day \u2014 when we wear them, when we wash and dry them. And even more microplastics are released upstream, when clothes are manufactured.<\/p> \u201cIt\u2019s a multi-faceted issue,\u201d said Judith Weis, a professor emeritus of biological sciences at Rutgers University. To solve it, environmental advocates are calling for more systemic solutions \u2014 not just a ban on PVA, but new laws requiring washing machine filters, better clothing design, and a shift away from fast fashion.<\/p> Long before consumers crack open a container of Tide Pods, their laundry has already begun generating microplastic pollution. That\u2019s because some 60 percent of clothing<\/a> today is made with plastic. Polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex \u2014 they\u2019re all just different types of fossil fuel-derived plastic fabric. And more plastic clothing could be on the horizon, as fossil fuel companies pivot to plastic production<\/a> in response to the world\u2019s transition away from using fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation.<\/p> Most<\/a> media<\/a> attention<\/a> has focused on microplastics that slough off of clothing in the wash. And for good reason: According to a 2019 study<\/a> in the journal Nature, washing machines can generate up to 1.5 million plastic microfibers per kilogram of washed fabric. Too small to get caught in standard washing machine filters, some 200,000 to 500,000 metric tons<\/a> of these microfibers slip out into wastewater every year and eventually make their way into the marine environment. That\u2019s about a third of all microplastics that directly enter the world\u2019s oceans.<\/p> Ocean microplastics are linked to a range of deleterious health effects<\/a> in marine animals, including inhibited development, reproductive issues, genetic damage, and inflammation. Weis said these observations are alarming for their own sake \u2014 \u201cI\u2019m concerned about the marine animals themselves,\u201d she told Grist \u2014 but they could also have implications for the health of humans, who might eat microplastics-contaminated seafood. Researchers have found microplastics throughout people\u2019s bodies \u2014 in their brains<\/a>, bloodstreams<\/a>, kidneys<\/a>, and, most recently, in 62 of 62 placentas tested<\/a> \u2014 and it\u2019s not yet clear what the impacts could be.<\/p> But, as Grist reported last year<\/a>, there are still many other ways that microplastics escape from our clothing. Just wearing plastic clothes, for instance, causes abrasion and the subsequent release of microplastics into the air. Some researchers think this actually causes more microplastic pollution<\/a> than doing laundry; they estimate that a single person\u2019s normal clothing use could release more than 900 million microfibers per year, compared to just 300 million from washing.<\/p> And then there\u2019s the manufacturing stage, which is perhaps the least understood source of plastic microfiber pollution. Every part of the clothes-making process can release microplastics, from the initial polymerization of natural gas and oil to the actual weaving, knitting, and subsequent processes that turn fabric into garments. According to a 2021 white paper<\/a> from the nonprofit The Nature Conservancy and the consulting firm Bain and Company, abrasion from dyeing, printing, and pre-washing clothes releases billions of plastic microfiber particles into factory wastewater every day \u2014 and not all of these particles are destroyed or filtered out by wastewater treatment.<\/p> The white paper estimates that pre-consumer textile manufacturing releases about 120,000 metric tons of microplastics into the environment annually \u2014 less than laundry or wearing clothing, but the same order of magnitude.<\/p> <\/p>