You must log in or # to comment.
…and ~35% come from the clothes we wear. No clothes, no cars, sign me up.
I mean we could just go to cotton or other organic materials for clothing
If you go with no plastic and no animal-based, turns out warm clothing is quite difficult make.
Yeah but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve avoided synthetic fabrics for years. People used to think I was just being a woowoo anti-science luddite hippy (this was back before microplastics were a well-known phenomenon). But the fact is I just didn’t like the texture of synthetics.
Here are some examples of natural fiber, all of which are lovely:
- Linen - made from flax; lightweight, airy, dries quickly. Great for summer.
- Bamboo - made from bamboo. Feels like a dream. Softer than cotton, lighter than linen, smooth as silk. Sustainable. Not even crazy expensive.
- Micromodal - made from beech trees. Similar to bamboo, but even softer.
- Rayon - made from cellulose. Often used in blends to impart softness and elasticity. Many different kinds. Bamboo and micromodal might technically be kinds of rayon. Also known as viscose.
Non-vegan:
- Sheep’s wool - Many varieties. Soft, warm, comfortable even when wet. Great for winter (and hiking socks!). Can be felted due to the properties of the fiber. Comes in a range of qualities, but low quality wool can be itchy.
- Alpaca - Like wool, but softer, sturdier, and warmer. More expensive than wool.
- Kashmere - made from a species of goat fiber. Very very soft. Also expensive.
- Mohair - Different kind of goat wool. Haven’t tried this one personally so I can’t describe it.
- Angora - Made from rabbit wool! Also haven’t tried this one, but supposedly it’s very soft.
- Yak - Suuuper warm. Durable. Not as expensive as you might think.
- Silk - Soft, smooth, shiny. Also non-conductive and low-friction! Tends to be expensive, though.
And of course, cotton is versatile and has a wide range of qualities (depends on growing region, thread count, and processing methods. Pima and Egyptian cotton are supposed to be the highest quality, but are also more expensive. Organic cotton is best for the environment).
Here are just some examples of fabrics you can make with cotton:
- Jersey knit
- Terry cloth
- Flannel
- Denim
- Satin
- Muslin
Be sure to check the tags though: many “cotton blends” contain polyester, and often they label something “flannel” when it’s just polyester with a plaid print (real flannel is a type of fabric, not the pattern on the cloth. If you can’t see the individual threads that make up the pattern, it’s not real flannel, just a print).
Final note: most fibers can be either knit or woven, with textures depending accordingly. There are sooo many different kinds of wovens, each with its own unique pattern. Could write a whole textbook just on different kinds of weave.
You missed hemp. I’ve only the one shirt and haven’t worn it much yet but it seems similar to linen. I’ll find out as it gets warmer.
Good point! I did forget that one.
Although, I find it difficult to find real hemp products. So many things that used to be hemp are now made of acrylic (drug rugs, mexican-style blankets, etc.)
I think I have a pair of flip flops lined with hemp, and you’re right, it is a lot like linen!
Rayon is still toxic to the environment to some degree
Hey, not to be that guy, but viscose and “bamboo” etc. are not natural and environmentally friendly fabrics. They are from natural fibers but heavily chemically processed. I wear them too in boxers because they are very durable and nice to wear. But just wanted to inform you!
Nice to know, but does that depend on how it’s processed? Like would it still apply to an organic bamboo fabric?
The viscose rayon made from bamboo requires pretty nasty solvents, and that’s the stuff used to make soft stuff like underpants. It can also be made into a stiffer thread more like linen without a chemical process.
Good to know.
Organic cotton is actually way softer than regular cotton. I forget the explanation that I read, but I think it has something to do with using a better variety.
lol I was memeing but this is good info. Which is your preferred fabric for undies? I live in a hot climate so cotton and wool are not preferred…
Bamboo and micromodal make good underwear. I haven’t tried them in the summer yet so I don’t know how they hold up in heat and humidity.
Linen can be good for underwear. It’s very breathable, but sometimes it takes a few washes before it feels soft. Also, it doesn’t have any natural elasticity, so it needs an elastic waistband to stay up. Sometimes it has a drawstring, but I prefer the waistband personally. It’s also loose and flowy, so if you wear tight clothes and don’t want it bunching underneath, linen isn’t a good choice for underwear. If you wear loose, flowy clothes anyway, linen is a great choice.
If you’re willing to put out the expense, silk undies sound kinda awesome. Never tried that myself though so I’m not sure how breathable it is.
Personally, I love linen in general for hot weather. You can wear long sleeves to keep the sun off, and its so airy that you don’t even feel hot under your clothes. Especially if it’s a light color. It also dries quickly, so it’s not like cotton where once you sweat you’ll be wet all day. Spend thirty minutes in the shade on a breezy day, and your linen clothes will already be dry
U basedmaxxing and fibermogging no cap
Everyone thinks nudity is great until they remember how the average person actually looks
Or how much the sun will fuck you up
Or the lack of sun
This one is real
Maybe just a loin cloth then.
lol seeing ugly people doesn’t hurt you.
it hurts my soul
Can we though? Like, sure, as a personal choice, I could prioritize clothes made from non-plastics (and I do, though not religiously), but is there enough cotton and such available on the planet to meet every individual’s clothing needs? Because if we want to talk about it at a “reducing microplastics being generated” level, that’s what’s required in the end.
Plus supply and demand means that prices follow demand, so everyone doing this will drive up organic based clothing prices and drive down plastic based clothing prices.
Not saying we shouldn’t try to adjust our individual patterns, just that it gets more complicated as it scales up.
Clothes particles go right into the water, not air so much
I think this should be a big deal because we can probably do something about it. microplastics from clothing ought to be controllable by pollution regulations on manufacturers and filters on clothes washers
Or buying more clothes with natural fabrics
I’ve been considering the filter idea because it’s something in my control but it’s unclear if currently available Ones are effective
Edit: checked my water treatment since it’s supposed to be among the most advanced, and nope. It does not measure or treat PFAS or microplastics, and it sells treated sewage as fertilizer.
I see those contaminants are mostly blamed on leachate from landfills but that just narrows to the source where we should be doing something
buying more clothes with natural fabrics
Cotton, wool, linen, and leather as well as re-learning to mend and alter clothes instead of everything being fast and disposable. I feel like I’m in crazytown every time I go shopping, there’s so much god damn plastic everywhere.
Not even NO clothes and tires, just clothes and tires that aren’t made of plastic
It’s much easier to switch to clothes not made of plastic then it is to replace what we make tires out of.
cough train
I mean, yes. But that’s a different discussion.
Unfortunately not. Is there even another choice for tires that won’t shed microplastics? I’ve never read of one
That being said, someone was proposing an affordable way to filter runoff from highways that we should at least try
No, the choice between safely biodegradable tires vs petro tires is a separate discussion from better pubic transit to reduce the need for those tires.
A few things I’m going to point out though.
-
It’s not the run off into streams and into drinking water that’s the likely point of intake. It’s the air we breath, epically in cities or along major highways where people are intaking the plastic.
-
Don’t assume that just because something is natural means that it is completely harmless. Plenty of natural compounds are toxic.
-
The family of compounds that we need to be concerned about the most is PFAS. It is a synthetic, but it’s because it’s a forever chemical and doesn’t metabolize out of the body.
The first and easiest step would to remove the PFAS and create safe alternatives. It’s a weird Catch 22. It needs to be durable and long lasting so it doesn’t blow out on the highway, but it also needs to be weak and biodegradable so organic systems can break it down. EVs, even the EV busses, need even more durable tires as the torque is higher.
Even if you got wide spread train adoption, people still need to get to those trains and bikes still have rubber tires. Busses use less rubber compared to cars per person, but it’s still not zero.
Connecting mircoplastic from runoff seems like a wasted effort. What do you do with it afterwards? Burn it? Try and recycle it? Plastic is hard to recycle. Better to keep the most harmful plastics from being created in the first place.
bikes still have rubber tires.
I don’t see how this matters. It’s not whether that materials exist, but how much wear away into microplastics. Aside from the occasional kid screwing around, bicycles probably are not.
Connecting microplastic from runoff seems like a wasted effort
For sure it’s better that it not be created, however it is. Even if we were able to stop using it, there are mountains of goods already using it and goods already disposed of, leaching pollution into our air, our water, our food, our environment. Even if we were able to find away for tires to stop emitting microplastics, we have billions of tires that will continue to do so.
-
Easier than either to just stop making them.
Switch back to natural rubber?
Mandating that everyone in the public can no longer buy the huge variety of clothing styles that can only be achieved with synthetics would cause a giant uproar of opposition and would be almost impossible to get passed into law.
So would anything that makes world better.
Sure, but a gradually increasing tax on the production any plastic containing fabrics would help naturally phase it out.
Plus mandate a filter on clothes washers. I’m sure there would be an entire subculture of reactionaries dedicated to removing them but most people wouldn’t
Demand changes what is available. My local men’s fashion place now sells Hawaiian shirts made of natural fibres. Cotton underwear has always been available
Now I can easily get my brightly coloured clothes in reasonable fibres I’ll have nothing that loses micro plastics on me today
Though I may ride my bike and bike tyres have the same problems as car tyres though they wear much less
That’s why I buy clothes made with polyester! No plastic here! In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen clothes with “plastic” as a material before…
Polyester is plastic.
Or are you being sarcastic? (I hate that this rhymes, it was totally unintentional…)
Iirc viscose, polyether etc., right?
I think some viscose can be plant-based. I could be wrong but I think they can make viscose from bamboo.
Yeah, it constantly degrades, we wash it directly into the water, and you can’t find clothes that are plastics-free.
Am I being naive when I believe that clothing is 100% cotton/linen because that’s what it says on the tag and there’s some tricksy shit like plastic thread not counting or are those also hard to find where you are?
Well, sorta - in some markets labels can also just be fake (or even in regulated markets I’m sure there can be “mistakes”), but in a lot of them the tags are just describing one (main) fabric.
So a plain shirt made from 100% cotton can be stitched together with a plastic thread. Or have elastic collar (ie plastic).
(Not to mention that you basically can’t get any data on die method used. Or exact fabric characteristics, like thread length. Or weave type. Etc.)I’m most comfortable if the tag lists like 5 separate 100% items (eg ingredients of the main fabric, of the pocket liners, of buttons, of elastic bits, etc).
Everything is designed to fatigue you out & monetise your actions the most.
But with a lot of clothing you just can’t get non-plastic bits at all - like winter clothes, footwear, etc.
Even more depressive most/all such items have some pfas outer layer (like a teflon or teflon-like coating so it’s more hydrophobic/oleophobic & the water & dirt slides off). But we all breathe it in & it just stays there.
… and then there are ppl who worship clothes made from 100% artificial materials bcs they are “high tech” & have “good performance”.
Id like you to see you try that outside tropical climates.
You wouldn’t see much, unfortunately…
Citation needed
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724011422
There’s been a wave of similar articles coming out over the last few years. People are finally noticing that this is yet another way cars are killing us.
Well, no, we don’t know that & that’s prob false, it’s just all plastics.
Tire microplastics just get circulated faster bcs they get grinned to a fine powder as part of their initial use (& that float gets flushed away with water). And the stat is stated for water or air.
Which is a problem, I’m just saying that we are producing a much larger scale of this problem that we can currently detect (and detecting microplastics is still in it’s infancy even in lab conditions).
But sooner or later all petroleum based (non-biodegradable) plastics get to be microplastics, we just won’t be around to see it.
Microplastics are the sedimentary boundary that will mark the current extinction event in rocks.
You can weigh new tires and compare them to weights of replaced tires. That would give you the low end estimate environmental tire microplastics deposited based on tire sales. I can’t imagine its not a massive number.
Yes, it is. But compared to all plastics production it’s not a third. Much like clothes aren’t a third either.
But they both release microplastics directly into the air & water, so they enter the circulation quicker. The printer that is gonna end on a landfill will be in the balls of creatures millennia from now.
That printer is not “micro”, it won’t shed detectably, and it will be confined to one part of a landfill
Confined-ish. Rain will still wash it further eventually.
All fossil fuel (+many other) plastics = microplastics eventually.
But my og reply here was just making that point - that within our lifetime most of the microplastics we will breathe & ingest comes from clothing, tires, and food-adjacent plastic products.
Toner is basically bulk microplastic.
Supposedly you can recycle them, but normally they will be confined to a a small section of landfill. While “on a landfill” is not a good answer, it’s much better than “in the environment “
You could even argue that leachate is “good” in that it pulls all these contaminants out of the landfill to a concentrated place where they could in theory be removed (and placed in a landfill 🤪)
You can’t recycle them (very poorly at best, with extra harmful byproducts).
And landfills are not built like nuclear waste storage facilities.
Everything around us is ‘the environment’.
Landfills at least in the us absolutely are designed to encapsulate waste, to minimize leachate and to control runoff. The whole point is to bury it in a way that it will tend to stay buried.
There is evidence of paper not decomposing because it doesn’t get enough oxygen or water for microbes to do their thing
Stupid lemmys driving cars into playgrounds.
Don’t tell me how to take a shortcut to work.
That’s one of those facts you never think about… makes you realize pollution isn’t just exhaust, it’s everything around it too.
That’s why I don’t use tires. Raw dog the road.
There are some people who do that. Just driving on the steel rims of their cars. But they usually take it a step further, driving on roads that are also made of steel.
Trains…?
No, Trams
Source? Heard this before and not surprised, but I’d like something concrete that I can point to.
It seems to be even higher, several studies suggest it’s closer to 50%:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05002
Three different studies predicted emitted tire wear proportions (TWP and TRWP) of total emitted MP [microplastic] loads in the environment (both aquatic and terrestrial) for around 45%. (6,7,52) These calculations were mainly based on global, annual production data and matched the TWP proportions of around 40% in this study. However, since C-PVC was excluded here, a comparison of the percentages is not trivial.
Thanks!
And the severity increases with per axle weight
The OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) for benzene is 1 part per million (ppm) as an 8-hour time-weighted average (TWA), with a short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 5 ppm for any 15-minute period.
The benzene content limit in gasoline in the United States is set at 0.62% by volume, with a maximum average standard of 1.3% that took effect in 2012.
Are you swimming in your fuel?
Never got a drip on you filling up? There’s 10,000x as much benzene in gas as OSHA alllows for expoure
Those OSHA guidelines are for gaseous phase. Which yes you’re likely to get a high concentration even just pumping gas, but my guess is it averages out to within the limits. Seems weird to state liquid fractions.
It’s because Benzene is so volatile that it will rapidly evaporate and then it’s density is low enough that it spreads out so quickly that in a very short time it’s no longer dangerous. You basically have to crouch down and huff by the fuel nozzle or be pumping gas in a small enclosed space for any significant health impacts.
I thought car tyres were made of rubber.
On average ~25% of that rubber is synthetic, i.e. pertroleum/plastic based.
Rubber literally grows on tress, and we’re like no, plastic please.
Rubber is less resistant than the plastics mix we use now.
We didn’t invest much into developing rubber into a better for for tires. The switch was due to cost & hegemony.
There are actual safety concerns with tires. Modern ones are much, much less prone to blowing out on the highway.
It still can happen though. Ask me how I know.
According to this page it’s about that 25% of the whole tyre, where more than half the tyre is not rubber/synthetic rubber but other stuff.
So there is more synthetic rubber than natural rubber. But the mind-blowing thing for me here is that I kind of assumed the whole tyre was synthetic, but they are only 25% plastic and still are the biggest source of mocroplastic.
But the other stuff is nasty. Total of petrochemicals in a tyre is above 60%. That fabric, carbon black, oils, elastometers, textiles, antioxidantes and additives are all based on petroleum too
By mass or volume?
