How To Avoid Microplastics When Washing Your Clothes

Wondering how you can avoid microplastics when washing your clothes? I’ve got 9 top tips to help reduce shedding during the laundry process.

Microplastics – tiny bits of plastic less than 5 millimetres long – are the fashion industry’s dirty secret. Fast-fashion brands keep making more and more clothes from plastic-based fibres because it’s cheap. Yet with every load of laundry we do of clothing made from plastic, we wash as many as 700,000 microplastic fibres into our waterways.

Here’s why that’s a big problem, alongside the types of fabric that shed microplastics, and my top tips to avoid microplastics when washing your clothes.

The Impact Of Microplastic Pollution

These tiny little pieces of plastic sound benign, but once in our rivers and seas, these little bits of plastic are wreaking untold damage on our environment, animals and humans.

Scientists have found microplastics in our food and our bodies, as well as those of animals. Microplastics have even been found at the top of Mount Everest and the bottom of the Mariana Trench – the deepest point in the world’s ocean.

Studies on the impacts of all of this plastic are ongoing, and it’s likely to be some time before we know the full implications of a world full of plastic.

Clothing isn’t the sole source of microplastics. It stems from a variety of sources, including car tyres, paint, other plastic products, fishing gear, cosmetics, and more. However, with clothing brands expected to increase their use of plastic-based fabrics further, clothing remains one of the largest sources of microplastics.

What Types Of Fabric Shed Microplastics?

All fabrics – including cotton, linen and wool – shed microfibres during the laundry process. However, it is only clothing made from oil that sheds microplastics. The types of fabric that shed microplastics include:

• Polyester
• Recycled Polyester (sometimes written as rPet)
• Polyester Fleece
• Nylon (sometimes called Polyamide)
• Recycled Nylon
• Elastane (sometimes called Spandex or Lycra)
• Acrylic
• Recycled plastic clothing (e.g. ECONYL, Repreve, SEAQUAL, Q-NOVA, Newlife, Refibra, and Coolmax EcoMade)
• Synthetic blends, including polycotton, polyviscose, cotton elastane, and more.

Top Tips To Avoid Microplastics When Washing Your Clothes

So how can you reduce the amount of microplastics that your clothing sheds during the laundry process? I’ve got nine top tips to help you out:

Wash Your Clothes Less Frequently

The best place to start if you are trying to avoid microplastics is to only wash your clothes if they need washing. Many of us wash our clothes after just one wear, but there’s often no need to be so overzealous with washing.

If your clothes are visibly dirty or smell bad, then they, of course, need washing. But for other items, you may not need to put them through a wash cycle. A top with a small stain on the front, but is otherwise clean and smelling fresh, could be spot-cleaned instead.

Meanwhile, clothes with a slight odour don’t necessarily need washing. Instead, there are heaps of natural and effective ways to remove bad smells from clothes without washing them. And if your clothes aren’t dirty and don’t smell bad, then hang them up to air. They are then good to go for another day’s wear.

As well as helping to reduce microplastic shedding, washing less frequently helps make your clothes last longer. Plus it saves you money on your energy bills. It’s a win-win all round!

Wash In Colder Water

Turning down the temperature of your wash is another easy way to help reduce microplastics. Back in 2020, researchers at the University of Leeds found that reducing the temperature of your wash reduced the amount of microfibers shed by synthetic clothing.

In the study, they found that reducing the washing machine temperature from 40°C to 25°C significantly reduced the amount of microplastics released in the laundry process. This could be because plastic fibres become less brittle at lower temperatures, and so are less likely to break off your clothes.

Not only does a cooler wash help reduce microplastics, but it lowers your energy bills too. The Energy Saving Trust say that washing clothes at 20°C rather than 40°C saves around 66% of the energy used per load – another great reason to turn down the temperature!

Use A Shorter Wash Cycle

Turning the temperature down is one way to reduce microplastic shedding, but there’s more you can do. In the same study, the team at Leeds also found that using shorter wash cycles was another key step in reducing microplastics.

Comparing a 30-minute cycle at 25°C to an 85-minute cycle at 40°C (both with 1,600 rpm spins), the team found that the amount of microplastics released from the clothing was 52% less in the shorter, cooler wash. It seems the longer the wash, the greater the chance for microplastics to be released.

Avoid Doing Small Loads Of Laundry

In 2021, a team of Italian researchers found that doing a small load of laundry releases 5 times the amount of microplastics, compared to doing a bigger wash.

Doing small loads of laundry means that your clothes are exposed to greater amounts of turbulence and friction during the wash cycle. This is because with more water and less fabric in the machine, it causes increased friction levels, which puts more stress on your clothes. And it is this increased friction and stress that causes more microplastic shedding.

Filling your machine to the brim with laundry isn’t the answer, though. Doing so gives you sub-par laundry results and may mean you may need to re-wash your clothes (causing more microplastics to be released).

Instead, to help decrease the agitation without compromising on results, you should load your washing machine at two-thirds of its capacity. This will clean your clothes effectively, whilst reducing the amount of friction your clothes are exposed to.

Wash Synthetic Items Separately

It’s also a good idea to wash synthetic items separately from heavier garments like jeans or towels. When clothes are agitated in the washing machine, the heavier or coarser materials potentially act like sandpaper against lighter synthetic fibres, resulting in great microplastic release.

Consider Using A Microplastic Catcher

If you want to go a step further, then you could invest in one of the microplastic catchers that are available. The Guppyfriend (available at Ethical Superstore), for example, is a mesh bag to place your synthetic clothing in whilst you wash them. The bag catches the microplastics, and you can scoop them out and put them in your general waste bin.

Other options include the Cora Ball – a spiky laundry ball designed to catch loose synthetic fibres before they escape with the wastewater.

Line Dry Where Possible

It’s not just the washing process that causes microplastics to break off. The drying process does too – particularly if you tumble dry your clothes.

A 2023 study found that tumble dryers can release 600 tonnes of microfibres each year into waterways in the UK and EU alone. This is because the high temperatures and constant agitation can make fibres brittle and prone to breakage.

The advice is, instead, to line dry your clothes instead, where possible – either outdoors or indoors on a clothes horse.

Buy Fewer Items Of Clothing

Common advice is to avoid buying synthetic items of clothing and instead stick to natural fibres. Unfortunately, that’s not as simple as it sounds.

Many natural fibres are blended with synthetic fibres – either for strength or to lower the price for consumers. Some natural fibre clothing is sewn with synthetic threads or contains an elastic waistband, a plastic zipper or buttons. The lining or pockets may be made from polyester. Even the care label is commonly made from polyester.

And some technical clothing – such as swimwear and certain types of activewear – currently need to be made from synthetics to have the properties that we expect of them.

Instead, if you are looking to reduce the environmental impact of your wardrobe, then it’s best to extend the life of the clothes you already own or shop for preloved clothing. If you do buy new, look for clothes with the highest proportion of natural fibres.

You might be tempted to rid your wardrobe of synthetic clothes. I don’t recommend this. If you donate or sell them, they’ll continue to release microplastics by the next owner laundering them. And if you bin them, they will still break down into microplastics. Instead, keep wearing them for as long as possible. It’s always more sustainable to use what you already have.

Reach Out To Your Local MP

Whilst these are all solutions we can undertake at home to help tackle microplastic pollution, unfortunately, it’s not enough. For large-scale change to take place, we need Governments, the fashion industry, and washing machine manufacturers to step up.

Change is happening in other countries. In February 2020, France passed a law that requires all new washing machines sold to have a microplastic filter by 2025. And in March 2021, Australia said it would phase in microplastic filters to all washing machines by July 2030. The Australian press has described the move as a ‘no-brainer’ in cutting pollution.

The same thing can happen here in the UK with public pressure on our MPs. So, for that reason, I recommend reaching out to your local MP to help press for action on microplastics. Use the WriteToThem website to find details of the politicians who represent you.

What About Laundry Detergent?

I’ve come across a few articles that suggest that using laundry liquid is a better choice when it comes to limiting microplastic release. The reason being that laundry powder is abrasive and causes microplastic shedding.

However, despite a whole lot of searching and reaching out to microplastics experts, I’ve not been able to find a single scientific study that backs this up. If I do come across anything concrete, then I’ll be sure to update it here.

It’s worth mentioning that some laundry detergents (liquid or powder) do contain microplastics. There haven’t been many studies on this. I can find one Austrian study that was carried out on microplastics in detergents from 2019. Here, 300 different detergent brands were tested, and shockingly, microplastics turned up in 119 of them.

I’d love to put together my own research on this to find out more about the position in the UK, but unfortunately, it’s not just a case of looking at the ingredients. Manufacturers of detergents are not obliged to list all ingredients on product packaging.

Without commissioning a lab to do the study for me (something that I couldn’t possibly afford), there’s frustratingly no way of finding out this information. Hopefully, some university research team can get funding to do this – the results would be fascinating.