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Papers
61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Fashion to Dysfunction: The Role of Plastic Pollution in Interconnected Systems of the Environment and Human Health
ClearRole of Textile Industries in Microfiber Pollution
This review examines the role of textile industries in generating microfiber pollution, tracing microfiber release during fabric production, consumer use, laundering, and end-of-life disposal as synthetic textile demand grows with fast fashion. The review documents pathways by which textile microfibers enter freshwater and marine environments and accumulate in aquatic biota, linking industry growth trends to escalating environmental microfiber loads.
A Systematic Literature Review for Addressing Microplastic Fibre Pollution: Urgency and Opportunities
This review summarizes existing research on microplastic fibers, tiny synthetic threads released mainly from washing clothes and breaking down plastic products. These fibers have been found in water, air, and even human organs, where they can carry absorbed toxins. The authors call for urgent action to manage fiber pollution at its source and reduce human exposure.
Environmental Pollution by the Fast Fashion: Current Status and Prospects
This review examines the environmental footprint of fast fashion — mass clothing production that generates enormous textile waste, synthetic fiber shedding, and water pollution. It is relevant to microplastics because synthetic garment washing is one of the largest sources of microfiber pollution entering waterways, though the paper focuses on industry-level sustainability responses rather than quantifying microplastic release specifically.
Sustainable Fashion
This review of sustainable fashion examines how the textile industry's shift to fast fashion has accelerated environmental damage, including the shedding of synthetic microfibres — a major source of microplastic pollution in waterways — and argues that circular production models and consumer behaviour change are needed to reduce the industry's footprint. The paper is relevant because textile microfibres are among the most commonly detected microplastics in marine and freshwater environments.
Microfiber Emissions from Functionalized Textiles: Potential Threat for Human Health and Environmental Risks
This review examines how textiles release tiny plastic fibers during washing and wearing, making them a major source of microplastic pollution. These microfibers, often treated with chemicals like flame retardants and antimicrobials, are too small for most wastewater filters to catch. They end up in waterways, soil, and air, where they can be inhaled or ingested by humans, potentially carrying harmful chemicals into the body.
The Environmental Impacts of Fast Fashion on Water Quality: A Systematic Review
This systematic review documents how fast fashion contributes to water pollution, including the release of synthetic microfibers — a major source of microplastic contamination. The fashion industry produces about 20% of global wastewater, and these microfibers can end up in drinking water and food sources.
Evaluating the environmental impacts of textile and fashion industries
This review evaluated the environmental impacts of the global textile and fashion industries, finding that resource overconsumption, water pollution, synthetic fiber microplastic release, and vast waste generation make these sectors major drivers of ecosystem degradation.
The Impact of Fast Fashion on Marine Plastic Pollution
This paper reviews the fast fashion industry's contribution to waterway pollution, explaining that cheap synthetic clothing sheds microplastic fibers during production and washing, and that the industry's rapid growth — especially in Asia — is making this a significant global pollution source. The authors propose manufacturing regulations and consumer behavior change as solutions to reduce the volume of synthetic microfibers entering waterways.
Unraveling the ecological impact of textile microfibers: Current knowledge and research challenges
This review examines the ecological impact of textile microfibers, a major subset of microplastic pollution released during laundry and fabric wear. Researchers found significant knowledge gaps regarding how these fibers affect organisms and ecosystems, particularly when interacting with other environmental contaminants. The study calls for more standardized research methods and greater attention to this pervasive but understudied form of microplastic pollution.
The New Sea Food: Fashion, Waste, and Microplastics
This paper explored the intersection of fast fashion, textile waste, and microplastic pollution, examining how synthetic fiber shedding during laundry has made fashion one of the major sources of ocean microplastics. It discussed policy and design interventions to reduce textile microplastic emissions.
Environmental contamination by microplastics originating from textiles: Emission, transport, fate and toxicity
This review examines how synthetic textiles release fibrous microplastics into the environment through laundering, wear, and disposal. Researchers traced the journey of textile-derived microplastics from washing machines through wastewater treatment plants and into waterways, soils, and the atmosphere. The study highlights that textile fibers are among the most common types of microplastics found in the environment and calls for better mitigation strategies at every stage of the textile lifecycle.
Synthetic Textiles and Microplastics
This review examines how synthetic textiles shed microfibers during washing and drying, covering the mechanisms of release, the environmental fate of microfibers in aquatic systems, and strategies for reducing microplastic pollution from the fashion and textile industry.
Functionalized textile microplastics: A closer look at the issues, strategy, and legislation on the microplastic reduction
Researchers reviewed how textiles release microplastics into soil, water, and air while also shedding toxic chemicals like PFAS, heavy metals, and formaldehyde during production and washing, and examined the gaps in international legislation aimed at reducing microfiber pollution from the fashion industry.
Microfibers from synthetic textiles as a major source of microplastics in the environment: A review
This review examines how synthetic textile garments release thousands of microplastic fibers during each wash cycle, making laundry a major source of microplastic pollution. Even though wastewater treatment plants capture most fibers, billions still escape into waterways each day because the incoming volume is so enormous. These fibers end up in rivers, oceans, and soil, where they can be consumed by aquatic life and eventually reach humans through the food chain.
A critical review on environmental pollution caused by the textile industry
This review examines how the textile industry contributes to environmental pollution, including the release of microplastics from synthetic fibers during washing. The study highlights that non-biodegradable materials like polyester, nylon, and acrylic shed microplastic fibers that enter water systems, potentially harming marine organisms and entering the human food chain.
Understanding the Flows of Microplastic Fibres in the Textile Lifecycle: A System Perspective
The lifecycle flows of microplastic fibers through the textile industry were mapped, identifying key stages from fiber production through washing and disposal where fibers are shed and enter the environment. This systems-level analysis supports targeted interventions to reduce fiber microplastic pollution at source.
Exploring Microplastic and Natural Fiber Emissions from Fabrics and Textiles
This review examines microplastic and natural fiber emissions released from fabrics and textiles during use and washing, identifying textiles as a major but underappreciated source of microplastic pollution in the environment. The authors assess emission factors and the downstream environmental and health implications of synthetic fiber shedding.
SUSTAINABLE FASHION INDUSTRY: Why do we need a switch towards conscious consumption?
This thesis examines the fashion industry's environmental and social harms, including its significant contribution to microplastic pollution through synthetic textile washing, and argues for a shift toward more conscious consumer behavior. Fast fashion is one of the largest sources of synthetic microfibers entering waterways globally.
The Health Impact of Fast Fashion: Exploring Toxic Chemicals in Clothing and Textiles
This review examines the health impacts of hazardous chemicals embedded in modern clothing, including dyes with heavy metals, antimicrobial agents that may foster bacterial resistance, and synthetic fibers that release microplastics. The study highlights that these substances may contribute to chronic skin conditions, hormonal disruptions, and other health concerns, calling for safer textile technologies, stricter regulations, and greater consumer awareness.
Textile industry as a major source of microplastics in the environment
This review examines the textile industry as a major source of microplastic pollution, synthesizing data on recycling technologies and lifecycle assessments for synthetic textile fibers. It identifies barriers to progress — including fiber lamination with metals, rapidly changing fiber types, and low recycling efficiency — and argues that only a globally coordinated reduction in synthetic fiber production will meaningfully curb microplastic release. The textile sector is one of the largest contributors of microfibers to aquatic environments, making systemic change in this industry critical.
The Health Impact of Fast Fashion: Exploring Toxic Chemicals in Clothing and Textiles
This review examines the hidden health risks of fast fashion, finding that modern clothing often contains hazardous chemicals including heavy metal dyes, antimicrobial agents that promote bacterial resistance, and synthetic fibers that shed microplastics. Evidence indicates these substances can contribute to chronic skin conditions, hormonal disruptions, and potential cancer risk through prolonged skin contact. The authors call for stricter regulation and safer textile technologies to protect consumers from chemical exposure through their clothing.
Toxic Chemicals in Textiles and the Role of Microplastic Fibres as a Source and Vector for Chemicals to the Environment
This review examines how the chemical-intensive textile industry releases toxic substances throughout the product lifecycle, and critically evaluates the contested role of microplastic fibers as vectors for transporting chemical contaminants to biota and the broader environment.
Microfibres from apparel and home textiles: Prospects for including microplastics in environmental sustainability assessment
This review examines how synthetic textiles release plastic microfibers during production, use, and laundering, making them a major source of microplastic pollution. Researchers found that textile microfibers may account for up to 35% of primary microplastics entering marine environments and can persist for decades in soils. The study discusses factors affecting fiber release from fabrics and calls for better assessment methods to understand the environmental and potential health risks of this widespread contamination.
A review on microplastic emission from textile materials and its reduction techniques
Researchers reviewed how synthetic textile fibers — tiny plastic threads released from clothes during washing, drying, and wearing — are a major source of microplastic pollution, entering waterways and food chains through seafood, salt, and drinking water. They identify fabric type, detergent, and washing conditions as key factors affecting fiber release, and propose textile finishing and regulatory strategies to reduce emissions.