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  • elilla&, ungültige Sondermigrantinelilla@transmom.love
    Nov 4, 2026, 9:57 AM

    here's a study about recycled polyester being greenwashing as it pollutes more than new polyester:

    changingmarkets.org/wp-content

    the core issue is that mass of microfibre pollution is less important than count of microfibres – each individual microplastic is one risk of biological harm; plus larger fibres do less damage as bodies are better at filtering them out. so lots of small fibres is worse than fewer of large ones. and the polyester recycling process

    this one table is particularly fun given the demonisation of Shein in particular as if it was different from Western brands. notice that the reason Shein is the only one whose recycled clothes don't have a higher fibre count is because they're probably lying about their clothes being recycled, as shown by (checks notes) the same item showing up randomly as "recycled" and "new" on different occasions

    Fibres per gram averages on new and recycled polyester on some popular brands. Sport clothes are the outliers here, with Nike having 20 thousand fibres/g for new and 31 thousand for recycled, and Adidas having 27 thousand/g for recycled, vs. HM having 3 and 8 thousand respectively, and Zara 4 thousand for recycled. Shein meanwhile has 7 thousand for new and 4 thousand for what they claim is "recycled".
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  • elilla&, ungültige Sondermigrantinelilla@transmom.love
    Nov 4, 2026, 10:31 AM

    sci-hub.st/10.1016/j.envpol.20 found less shedding on knit polyester than woven, surprisingly to me. but the difference is small. polypropilene also shed less than polyester, which is weird cos PP yarn has shorter, hairier fibres. the differences are such that I will ascribe this to random variations on yarn quality and whatnot and avoid hard conclusions. other studies usually say that looser fabrics shed more and dense twill the lest, straightforwardly.

    also fabric softener reduces microplastics shedding a good bunch, tragically for me who have severe allergies to softener. I wonder if white vinegar (common household softener) has an effect. liquid soap is better than powder. front-loading washing machines in laundromats actually shed more than top-loading, but the determining factor above else seems to be speed; automat front-loads are much faster than domestic ones. straightforwardly, you generally you want to wash clothes in long cycles with low speed and mechanical stress.

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  • elilla&, ungültige Sondermigrantinelilla@transmom.love
    Nov 4, 2026, 11:40 AM

    @lettosprey @spacekatia from what I read on those articles the Guppy bag and the Cora balls do work for real, but only for like, 30% of particles or such. I suppose they could be combined, though I saw no data about whether that's effective (presumably the type of fibre that's small enough to escape the one is also likely to escape the other). also they don't seem to sell the latter where I live. I wish someone researched DIY alternatives to these

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