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61,005 resultsShowing papers similar to Eco-friendly or eco-threat? The environmental risks of natural and semi-synthetic fibers
ClearClothes Encounters of the Microfibre Kind
This review examines how natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic textile fibers enter the environment and affect organisms and ecosystems, highlighting that fiber type influences toxicity and persistence. The authors conclude that textile fibers are an underappreciated category of microplastic pollution with diverse ecological effects.
Fragmented fibre (including microplastic) pollution from textiles
This review examined fragmented fiber pollution from all textile types including natural, regenerated, and synthetic fabrics, finding that all textiles release fibers throughout their lifecycle from manufacturing to washing to disposal, and that natural fiber shedding has been underestimated relative to synthetic fibers in pollution assessments.
Are We Underestimating Anthropogenic Microfiber Pollution? A Critical Review of Occurrence, Methods, and Reporting
This critical review examines whether anthropogenic microfiber pollution is being underestimated due to inconsistent research methods and reporting practices. Researchers found that natural and semisynthetic fibers like cotton and wool, which are often excluded from microplastic counts, contain chemical additives that make them persistent environmental contaminants. The study argues that all anthropogenic microfibers, not just synthetic ones, should be included in pollution assessments for a more accurate picture of contamination levels.
Impacts of non-petroleum and petroleum-based microfibers on aquatic organisms: a meta-analysis
This meta-analysis compared the toxic effects of petroleum-based and non-petroleum microfibers on aquatic organisms. Surprisingly, natural fibers like cotton and viscose also caused significant biological harm, not just synthetic ones like polyester and nylon. This means that even "natural" textiles shed fibers that can damage aquatic ecosystems, complicating the assumption that non-synthetic clothing is automatically safer for the environment.
Microfibre and nanofibre: pollution and environmental impacts
This review examines microfibres and nanofibres — shed from clothing and textiles during use and washing — as a significant but poorly quantified category of environmental pollutants. Up to 4.28 million metric tonnes of microfibres enter the environment each year, with synthetic garment laundering responsible for about 35% of that total, yet natural fibre shedding is largely ignored in sustainability assessments. The authors argue that both synthetic and natural microfibres need to be included in environmental impact frameworks, especially as fast fashion drives ever-increasing textile production.
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.
Challenge in increasing the use of animal-origin textile fibers to reduce microplastic pollution on earth
This review argues that replacing synthetic textile fibers with natural animal-origin fibers—such as wool and silk—could significantly reduce the release of microplastic fibers during washing, which currently contributes large quantities of plastic pollution to aquatic environments. The authors propose a scientific and policy framework to scale up natural-fiber use as a practical strategy for cutting textile-derived microplastic contamination.
Assessment of Microplastics in the Environment – Fibres: the Disregarded Twin?
This paper argues that synthetic fibers are systematically underestimated in environmental microplastic monitoring because they are often excluded from sampling protocols. Since synthetic textiles are ubiquitous and shed fibers through washing and wear, ignoring fibers means current assessments substantially undercount total microplastic environmental pollution.
Underestimationof Regenerated Cellulosic Microfibersin the Environment: Errors Introduced by Using Extraction Methodsfor Microplastics
Researchers found that regenerated cellulosic microfibers—semi-synthetic particles from fabrics like viscose and lyocell—are systematically underestimated in environmental monitoring because existing identification methods misclassify them, meaning the true scale of environmental contamination by these fibers is likely much larger than reported.
Beyond plastics: occurrence and ecological risks of non-plastic microfibres in aquatic organisms
This systematic review highlights that non-plastic microfibres from cotton, wool, and rayon clothing are also widespread pollutants in aquatic environments. These fibres, often overlooked in favor of plastic pollution, carry chemical additives and accumulate in aquatic organisms, suggesting the microparticle problem in our food chain is broader than previously thought.
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.
Laundry Care Regimes: Do the Practices of Keeping Clothes Clean Have Different Environmental Impacts Based on the Fibre Content?
This study examined how different textile fiber contents influence the environmental impacts of clothing care, finding that synthetic fiber garments generate more microplastic shedding during washing while natural fibers have other environmental trade-offs. Laundry care choices and fiber content both affect how much microplastic pollution is released into wastewater from household textile washing.
Freshwater and airborne textile fibre populations are dominated by ‘natural’, not microplastic, fibres
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.
Microfibers: a preliminary discussion on their definition and sources
This paper proposes clearer definitions for "microfibers" as a distinct category of microplastics and reviews their major environmental sources, noting that they are found nearly everywhere and released from both synthetic and natural textiles. Clearer terminology is important for comparability across research studies and for developing targeted policy responses to fiber pollution.
Textile recycling- A review
This review examines the growing global textile waste problem and technologies for recycling synthetic and natural fibers. Synthetic textile waste is a major source of microplastic pollution because fibers shed during washing and break down into microplastic fragments in landfills.
Occurrence, sources, fate and transport of textile fibers in oceanic environments
This review covers the occurrence, sources, transport pathways, and environmental fate of synthetic and natural textile fibers in oceanic environments. Despite global fiber production exceeding 107 million tonnes annually, the authors find that natural fibers (cotton, wool) are actually more abundant than synthetic fibers in most environmental samples.
Microfibers in oceanic surface waters: A global characterization
A global analysis of 916 seawater samples from six ocean basins characterized microfibers as ubiquitous contaminants, finding that many are not synthetic textiles but natural or semi-synthetic materials, questioning the assumption that all environmental fibers are microplastic.
Critical review of environmental impacts of microfibers in different environmental matrices
This review summarizes the environmental impacts of microfibers, both synthetic and natural, across marine, freshwater, and soil ecosystems. The study highlights that natural textile microfibers are actually the predominant type found in ecosystems, and notes a significant gap in research on how microfibers affect primary producers like phytoplankton at the base of food chains.
Natural or synthetic – how global trends in textile usage threaten freshwater environments
Researchers compared the freshwater environmental impacts of natural wool and synthetic polyester textiles across their entire lifecycle. They found that wool poses the greatest risk during production, while polyester textiles are most harmful during use and disposal phases, largely through microfiber release. The study highlights that both natural and synthetic textiles present substantial challenges for freshwater environments, requiring tailored solutions in different regions.
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 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.
Fibrous microplastics in the environment: Sources, occurrence, impacts, and mitigation strategies
This review provides a comprehensive look at fibrous microplastics, which can make up over 90 percent of microplastics found in some environmental samples. Researchers traced these fibers primarily to synthetic textiles, with laundering being a major release pathway, and documented their presence in water, soil, air, and living organisms. The study emphasizes that fiber-shaped microplastics deserve special attention due to their prevalence and unique potential to cause harm.
Environmental Degradation due to Synthetic Fibres
This review chapter examines how synthetic textile fibres—nylon, polyester, rayon, and acrylic—contribute to microplastic pollution through their entire lifecycle, from manufacturing to washing. Because these fibres shed millions of microfibre particles into waterways with every laundry cycle and persist indefinitely in the environment, the global textile industry is identified as a major, ongoing source of plastic contamination.
Synthetic fibers as microplastics in the marine environment: A review from textile perspective with a focus on domestic washings
This review examined synthetic fibers as a source of microplastics in the marine environment, tracing the full textile lifecycle from manufacturing through use and disposal to understand where and how fibers enter aquatic systems.