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Freshwater and airborne textile fibre populations are dominated by ‘natural’, not microplastic, fibres
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Researchers monitoring fibre pollution in a UK river and its surrounding air over twelve months found that natural textile fibres (e.g., cotton, wool) dominated the samples, representing 93.8% of all fibres detected, while synthetic microplastic fibres were entirely absent from more than 80% of samples.
The potential role of natural textile fibres as environmental pollutants has been speculated upon by some environmental scientists, however, there is a general consensus that their biodegradability reduces their environmental threat. Whilst the risks that they pose remain poorly understood, their environmental prevalence has been noted in several recent microplastic pollution manuscripts. Here we highlight the extent to which natural textile fibres dominate fibre populations of upstream reaches of the River Trent, UK, as well as the atmospheric deposition within its catchment, over a twelve month microplastic sampling campaign. Across 223 samples, natural textile fibres represented 93.8% of the textile fibre population quantified. Moreover, though microplastic particles including synthetic fibres are known to be pervasive environmental pollutants, extruded textile fibres were absent from 82.8% of samples. Natural textile fibres were absent from just 9.7% of samples.
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Researchers analyzed open-ocean textile fibers and found that a significant proportion are not synthetic plastics but rather natural fibers such as cotton and wool, challenging the assumption that all environmental fibers constitute microplastic pollution. This study calls for more precise characterization of fiber types in environmental monitoring to accurately assess plastic versus non-plastic contamination.
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This science communication piece highlights that the vast majority of tiny fibres found in ocean samples are actually natural materials like cotton and wool, not plastic — challenging widespread assumptions in microplastic research. The author argues that better fibre characterisation is needed to accurately assess the plastic component of textile pollution.
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Microfibers in oceanic surface waters: A global characterization
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