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Patagonia's New Study Finds Fleece Jackets Are a Serious Pollutant (2016)
- noman-land 2y agoWhen I found out that fleece was made of plastic I instantly stopped wearing it. That is weird.
- datavirtue 2y agoWool lasts a hell of a lot longer as well. The only drawback...sheep farts.
- xoac 2y agoPrefer sheep farts to plastic TBH
- davidw 2y agoWool can also be a huge PITA to wash.
- ozophe 2y agoyeah but you don't really need to wash it that often, at least
- _yb2s 2y agoPolar fleece / polyester is far more durable and longer lasting than wool… a cheap polar fleece jacket will basically last forever, even if used roughly by kids for decades. But the fibers harden and it loses some of its softness and warmth. Wool is much nicer but no comparison in longevity… it chafes through quickly and is susceptible to moths.
- hedora 2y agoNew-style wool is softer than traditional wool but it wears out quickly (~5-10 years of seasonal use). Traditional wool is scratchier but lasts much longer. Things labeled "Donegal" tend to be of that type, but read the description, since that's the name of a town, not the type of wool.
- _yb2s 2y agoYeah, modern ultra soft and thin merino wool garments wear out quickly, but even the old fashioned scratchy stuff doesn’t hold a candle to polar fleece. I’ve literally never seen a polar fleece jacket wear out, if they can handle many years of rough outdoors use by high energy toddler boys, they’d last hundreds of years of typical adult use. As a sailor, I’ve also seen the mind blowing chafe/wear resistance of polyester/dacron. Dacron sails and sheets (ropes) almost never fail from chafe. No natural fiber has that kind of chafe resistance. I love wool and hate the feel of polyester stuff, but durability isn’t one of polyesters weaknesses.
- Workaccount2 2y agoI don't think most people realize how much plastic they wear.
- causal 2y agoYeah, I've always been wary about wearing plastics that will melt onto your skin should they catch fire.
- ackfoobar 2y agoHave you checked other clothing as well? E.g. a lot of my T-shirts are a blend of cotton and polyester. I hate how much I like them (a lot).
- r00fus 2y agoNot OP, but I've avoided those when possible too (except some company issued tees), etc. Full cotton/wool are the best.
- noman-land 2y agoYeah, that realization led me to re-evaluate my textiles and to basically move to natural fibers as much as possible.
- xkcd-sucks 2y agoI honestly can't tell if this is sarcasm or not... like, fleece melts and natural fibers don't melt if the writing on the tag, or the "we make it from recycled bottles" marketing material, etc didn't make it clear before that
- devindotcom 2y agoYeah it's pretty gross. I've tried to move away from synthetic fabrics wherever possible. It's just plastic. I learned recently that a huge amount of the lint you see in the dryer is microplastics. Guess what? A similar amount comes out in the washer and goes out with the waste water wherever that ends up in your area. (These tiny fibers aren't easily caught by bulk water treatment methods, I understand.)
- ninininino 2y agoA significant portion of "household dust" comes from two sources: dead skin cells (great) and microplastics from textiles (wooo), like bedding, clothing, towels, rugs. Rugs: You can get machine-washable wool or cotton rugs or jute rugs. Clothing: cotton, linen, wool, natural leather Bedding: cotton/linen sheets
- Tollen 2y ago[dead]
- mistrial9 2y agoif discards go into the waste stream and into controlled disposal, then things are not terrible; but when products end up on the ground, in small pieces, on the streets or play yards.. problems.. streams and waterways - big problems
- _visgean 2y ago> discards go into the waste stream and into controlled disposal per the article: > wastewater treatment plants couldn’t filter out all synthetic fibers, and that toxins such as DDT and PCBs can bind to them as they make their way into watersheds
- jerlam 2y agoI found a 2023 followup from Patagonia: https://www.patagonia.com/stories/toward-an-end-to-microfiber-pollution/story-141340.html https://www.patagonia.com/stories/toward-an-end-to-microfibe... They still make fleece clothes, but they recommend washing less and have funded or sell filters to capture the microfibers.
- nextos 2y agoThere are several German brands selling fleece jackets made of boiled wool. They are quite nice to be honest, and the price is not very different from decent synthetics. Also boiled wool is not tricky to wash. Even regular wool is not hard to wash. If you have a washing machine with a wool program and you use soap specific for wool, things are straightforward. We should favor natural fabrics. Synthetics are polluting during manufacturing and wear, plus they are hard to recycle. Externalities that turn into future debt.
- germinalphrase 2y agoAre they comparable in weight? My experience is that wool tends to be quite a bit heavier (though I am thinking of felt rarer than ‘fleece’)
- davidw 2y agoAnd it gets even heavier when wet.
- sveme 2y agoCan you give some brand names? Really interested in this.
- eatonphil 2y agoHere, perhaps. (Just from a quick Google search.) I'm curious too. https://www.littlespruceorganics.com/disana-organic-boiled-wool-mens-jacket/ https://www.littlespruceorganics.com/disana-organic-boiled-w...
- stuff4ben 2y agoBut how often do you wash your jackets? For my oldest fleece jacket, I may have washed it once maybe twice over the 20 years I've owned it.
- eli 2y agoMost kids jackets are fleece...
- tmaly 2y agoFrom all the studies I have found, the biggest contributor to micro plastics is tires making up almost 80% of the pollution. I wonder what percent synthetic clothing material contributes to the overall micro plastic pollution?
- Tollen 2y ago[dead]
- Wohlf 2y agoTires aren't 80% of microplastics pollution, that's a misreporting of the study. They're 80% of the category that includes tires, that whole category is only 11% of microplastics.
- tmaly 2y agodo you have the figures for synthetic clothing? I own some synthetic clothing, and I try hang dry it as I believe drying contributes to micro plastic pollution.
- Wohlf 2y agoI'd have to dig into the research to figure it out, numbers on synthetic fibers range from 34-50+% but how that's categorized is all over the place.
- ruined 2y agoif we're recalling the same study, that's specifically for roadside streams, which makes sense. cars and tires are terrible but they're not everywhere
- CountHackulus 2y agoI'm kind of surprised that washing machines don't have that sort of filter already. I recently cleaned out two of the filters in my own washing machine and it did a pretty decent job catching a lot of things. I guess because it's so fine it would have to be cleaned out more?
- wolfi1 2y agowe're talking sub-micrometer here, I doubt that the usual sieves can handle that
- goda90 2y agoYou'd want a lot of pre-filters to catch bigger lint. And those pre-filters will need to be readily accessible for the user to clean out. And you'd want a system for detecting the filter is full to warn the user. Otherwise you're looking at a lot of unhappy people as their washing machine fails to drain a lot of the time as things clog up with lint.
- mastercheif 2y agoSamsung developed a microplastic filter that works with any washing machine. Claims to capture 98% of microplastics. It compacts the lint so that you only need to empty it once a month. Reports remaining capacity via SmartThings. https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-launches-less-microfiber-filter-to-protect-oceans-from-laundry-plastics https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-launches-less-microf...
- buildbot 2y agoShake a fleece jacket under the light. All those fibers are plastic, going into your lungs...
- mathgradthrow 2y agoIt is obviously more cost effective to filter out microplastics in wastewater treatment than at the individual washing machine level. 98% seems pretty good too.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoAren’t virtually all outdoors wear made of plastics? As far as I know, cheap brands and also pricier ones like Arcteryx all use the same materials. But they work great in terms of shedding water so I am not sure what alternative there is. Maybe the best way is to use all natural clothing for base layers but have the outer layer be plastic?
- _yb2s 2y agoYou can get all natural fiber outdoor gear. Ibex, smartwool, wooly, and others make good wool gear. Outer rain layers are more rare but a few companies like Filson make them. Good rain gear existed long before plastic was invented. Treated leather and waxed cotton are two ancient waterproof outer layer technologies that work excellent, and are heavier but also more physically durable than the modern stuff. I also feel “outer layers” are way overused. A good thick wool mid layer with natural lanolin waterproofing will work in any conditions except really strong rain, and is more comfortable and breathable. I have a vintage no longer made Ibex wool mid layer that is quite rain resistant due to very high lanolin content.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoMy understanding is that waxed cotton isn’t nearly as waterproof as plastic wear, but more like very water resistant. I have no direct experience with it - just what I’ve seen others report.
- _yb2s 2y agoIt’s waterproof enough… people sailed and fished in offshore storms in the stuff for hundreds of years. Modern hard shells aren’t very waterproof in practice either because the membranes and DWR coatings aren’t very durable. The only truly waterproof rain gear I’ve seen is totally non breathable polyurethane or pvc rain gear, or an actual dry suit.
- Maxion 2y ago> Modern hard shells aren’t very waterproof in practice either because the membranes and DWR coatings aren’t very durable. If the membrane gets blocked (ice, or soaked with water) they stop breathing and you get soaked from your own sweat. Less waterprof alternatives can often be drier in practice.
- Glench 2y agoReally heartening to see commenters in this thread concerned about plastic pollution! I have also tried to stopped buying clothes with plastic (polyester). Probably not our biggest environmental concern at the moment, but still might as well develop good habits of consuming in a way that minimizes my impact on the environment.
- somethoughts 2y agoThe one that concerns me personally is the whole wastewater recycling directly to drinkable tap water. Between micro-plastics from washing machines to medicine disposal, the long term unknowns to human health seem to be significant, not to mention the potential for human error.
- antisthenes 2y agoMicroplastics are one of the easier things to filter out from water though, compared to other nasty things, like pharmaceuticals or arsenic or PFAs. Although I think it will get to that point where we will have to use distillation machines for drinking water/cooking, unfortunately.
- jfkfif 2y agoPFAS is able to be removed via reverse osmosis which direct potable reuse facilities utilize, so not really a problem