This article was originally published in UCSB's ' The Current '.
We don’t often think of our clothing as plastic, but much of it is. Polyester, nylon, acrylic and other synthetic fibers are commonplace in the blended fabrics we wear every day. As a result, textiles have become an overlooked source of plastic pollution.
Researchers discovered that waste from the global apparel industry is leaking millions of tons of plastic into the environment each year and may be getting worse over time. The findings are detailed in a recent study in Nature Communications , which found that global apparel consumption resulted in over 20 million tons of plastic waste in 2019. Around 40% of that waste may have been improperly managed and become environmental pollution, a process known as “plastic leakage.”