Papers

61,005 results
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Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers 10 citations
Systematic Review Tier 1

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.

2022 Water 202 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2026 International Journal for Research in Applied Science and Engineering Technology
Article Tier 2

Role 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.

2024
Article Tier 2

The current situation of fast fashion industry and how to reduce the waste

This paper reviews the environmental problems caused by the fast fashion industry and evaluates current and emerging solutions including circular economy design and advanced recycling technologies. The authors argue that traditional waste disposal is no longer adequate for the volume of textile waste generated. Transitioning to circular fashion models could reduce the textile fiber microplastics that wash off synthetic clothing into waterways.

2023 Advances in Economics Management and Political Sciences 2 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2019 Theseus (Ammattikorkeakoulujen)
Article Tier 2

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.

2024 Southern cultures 1 citations
Article Tier 2

The impact of fast fashion on the environment and climate change

This paper examines how fast fashion's rapid production cycles and disposable consumer culture contribute to growing environmental impacts including carbon emissions, water pollution, and textile waste. The disposal of fast fashion clothing releases synthetic microfibers and eventually contributes to microplastic pollution in soils and waterways.

2023 Symposium of Literature Culture and Communication (SYLECTION) 2022 2 citations
Article Tier 2

Sustainability Initiatives in the Fashion Industry

This paper examines sustainability efforts in the fashion industry, where synthetic textiles are a major source of microplastic fiber pollution during washing. It reviews industry initiatives and consumer behavior changes aimed at reducing environmental impacts, including microfiber shedding.

2019 IntechOpen eBooks 14 citations
Article Tier 2

Fashion to Dysfunction: The Role of Plastic Pollution in Interconnected Systems of the Environment and Human Health

This review traces how the fast fashion industry contributes to microplastic pollution through the production, laundering, and disposal of synthetic textiles. Researchers found that microplastic fibers released from clothing bypass wastewater treatment and accumulate in human organs including the liver, lungs, and brain. The study highlights urgent gaps in understanding airborne textile microplastic emissions and calls for changes in textile design to reduce fiber release.

2025 Textiles 3 citations
Article Tier 2

Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility

This study examines the "slow fashion" movement as a sustainable alternative to fast fashion, analyzing how different business models, consumer behaviors, and policy frameworks can shift clothing production and consumption toward more responsible practices. Slow fashion is directly relevant to reducing textile microfiber pollution, since synthetic clothing is a major source of microplastics in wastewater.

2019 Laws 140 citations
Article Tier 2

Dampak Strategi Offshore Outsourcing Dalam Bisnis Fast Fashion Terhadap Degradasi Lingkungan di Bangladesh

This Indonesian paper examines how offshore outsourcing in fast fashion contributes to environmental degradation in Bangladesh, including water pollution. Fast fashion's synthetic fabrics are a major global source of microplastic fiber pollution in waterways and oceans.

2023 Journal of Political Issues
Article Tier 2

Perspectives of Textile Waste Management in the U.S. – A Review

This review examines the growing textile waste crisis in the United States, driven by fast fashion and population growth, and surveys current disposal and recycling practices. Textile waste is an important but underappreciated source of synthetic microfiber pollution when fabrics degrade or are laundered.

2022 Journal of Textile Science & Fashion Technology 6 citations
Article Tier 2

Appalling or Advantageous? Exploring the Impacts of Fast Fashion From Environmental, Social, and Economic Perspectives

This study explored the environmental, social, and economic impacts of fast fashion, finding that while low-cost clothing provides consumer benefits, the industry generates substantial negative externalities including textile microplastic pollution, excessive water use, and exploitative labor conditions in developing countries.

2022 Journal for Global Business and Community 34 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2024
Article Tier 2

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.

2017 The Science of The Total Environment 742 citations
Review Tier 2

Microplastic pollution from textiles: A literature review

This review examines the current state of knowledge on microplastic pollution, focusing specifically on synthetic microfibre shedding from textiles during washing and the significance of this source for marine and freshwater contamination.

2018 Duo Research Archive (University of Oslo) 23 citations
Article Tier 2

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.

2022 Polymer Degradation and Stability 291 citations
Article Tier 2

Microplastic pollution in aquatic environments from washing synthetic textiles

Washing synthetic textiles releases microplastic fibers into wastewater, and this study reviewed the scale of the problem and explored strategies to reduce emissions at the washing machine, garment design, and wastewater treatment levels. Textile laundering is considered one of the largest sources of microplastic fiber pollution reaching aquatic environments.

2021 Figshare
Article Tier 2

Sustainability of the Fashion Industry: An Examination of the US Fashion Industry's Impact on Water Quality

Researchers examined the impact of the US fashion industry on water quality, conducting a review of the literature on garment production-related water pollution while noting that the US has been underrepresented in global studies that typically focus on countries with large manufacturing sectors. The study found that domestic fashion industry activities contribute measurably to water quality degradation, including through microfiber and chemical discharge.

2025
Article Tier 2

The Fast Fashion Industry: Formulating the Future of Environmental Change

This legal analysis examines the environmental harms of the fast fashion industry — including textile waste, microplastic pollution from synthetic fibres, and opaque supply chains — and evaluates existing and proposed domestic and international legislation, arguing that transparency, circularity, and consumer awareness are essential for meaningful reform.

2023 Pace Environmental Law Review 7 citations
Article Tier 2

The Best-Dressed Polluter – Regulation and Sustainability in the Fashion Industry

This article examines the fashion industry's role in climate change and environmental pollution, calling for stronger regulation to address synthetic textile production and waste. Since synthetic fabrics shed microplastic fibers every time they are washed, the fashion industry is a major — and under-regulated — contributor to global microplastic contamination.

2021 eYLS (Yale Law School) 7 citations
Article Tier 2

How can we deal with the large amount of microplastics delivered to landfills and released into the environment by fast fashion? A practical valorization approach for mitigating textile fibrous microplastics before affecting the environment.

Researchers proposed a practical valorization approach for managing fibrous microplastics generated by fast fashion textile waste, addressing the challenge of large volumes of textile microplastics entering landfills and the environment through a circular economy framework to intercept fibers before environmental release.

2022 Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Article Tier 2

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.

2023 Global Journal of Ecology 9 citations