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We know how plastic waste floods our planet. We should also avoid clothing made of plastic fibers.
Not all synthetic clothing behaves the same: According to a British study, fleece sweaters lose an estimated 1,900 fibers per wash cycle - a polyester shirt loses only about half as many. Acrylic clothing loses the most fibers in the washing machine: a typical 6-kilo load can lose up to 700,000. Because once the particles have landed in nature, they stay there - sometimes even for centuries.
As is well known, synthetic fibers are made from petroleum and this requires an enormous amount of energy. The most commonly used fiber is polyester, and over 65% of all textiles are made with this fiber.
When washing, microfibers come off clothing. This is nothing other than microplastics! Just like tiny pieces from cosmetic products and all the abrasion from plastic packaging, they end up in our oceans. They are never broken down by natural processes and remain in circulation for hundreds of years. Fish and other sea creatures swallow the plastic and, via the food chain, it ends up in our food.
Nevertheless, as a consumer you can do something to prevent microfibers from entering the oceans: buy fewer clothes and be more conscious of what you buy. We shop too much and wear too little: A Greenpeace survey from 2015 found that Germans own 5.2 billion items of clothing, 40 percent of which are rarely or never worn.