Microplastics Shedding from Textiles—Developing Analytical Method for Measurement of Shed Material Representing Release during Domestic Washing

Abstract

The topic of shedding of micro-sized polymeric particles, so called microplastics, from textiles has been covered by an increasing number of studies over the past years. However, the methods with which the shedding of microplastics from textiles has been measured so far has shown a large variation. Consequently, the results regarding the amount of shed particles also vary, from 120 to 728,289 particles from similar garments in recent studies. This article presents research enabling for identification of whether the shedding of microplastics from different types of fabric was dependent on construction parameters. As none of the methods in the existing literature could be used for evaluating shedding of microplastics from textiles, a method was developed for this purpose. The resulting final method is described in this paper as well as the work with minimizing the error sources and consequently the standard deviation of the results through selection of material samples, equipment and procedure for sample preparation, washing, filtering the washing water and analyzing the shed microplastics. Comparing the environmental load of different garments, or identifying improvement possibilities in garment construction are two examples of how the method can be utilized.

Microplastic Fibers Released by Textile Laundry: A New Analytical Approach for the Determination of Fibers in Effluents

“…The lack of visualization leads to the assumption that the entire material recovered on the filter is attributed to fibers only. However, studies confirmed the presence of fibers and particles from non-textile sources in wastewaters from laundry [23,27]. In this sense textiles are A) an emitting source of fibers as fiber shedding occurs, and B) serve as a carrier for adhered foreign fibers and particles of various materials, shapes and sources.…”

“…Improvements have been developed by De Falco et al counting fibers on SEM-images acquired in orthogonal direction of the filter and extrapolating to the complete surface [22]. Jönsson et al applied an automated software-based fiber counting of the filter surface using microscopy [23]. However, visual counting methods entail the risk of uncertainty.…”

“…However, visual counting methods entail the risk of uncertainty. An overload of fibers on the filter may lead to an overlapping of individual fibers [15,23]. Consequently, the number of fibers is potentially underestimated.…”

“…Small pore sizes increase the retention capacity of fibers, however, clogging effects are more likely to occur [24]. In two studies, cascade filtering was applied to prevent filter blockage [18,23]. Further, the selection of an appropriate filter material, the sample handling in terms of drying, conditioning, and weighting factors potentially influence the quantitative results.…”

“…In this sense textiles are A) an emitting source of fibers as fiber shedding occurs, and B) serve as a carrier for adhered foreign fibers and particles of various materials, shapes and sources. In the latter case dust, production residues or contaminants from the surrounding are examples of fibers and particles adhering to the textile surface and may be released in the washing process [23,27]. Consequently, there is a significant risk of overestimating the results obtained by weight analysis.…”