This story was originally published byGrist.
(The EPArejected the requestlast year.)
The Pods Are Plastic bill faces uncertain prospects in the New York City Council.
Photo: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg (Getty Images)
If it does pass, however, it will only go a short way toward mitigating laundry-related microplastics pollution.
And even more microplastics are released upstream, when clothes are manufactured.
Its a multi-faceted issue, said Judith Weis, a professor emeritus of biological sciences at Rutgers University.
Long before consumers crack open a container of Tide Pods, their laundry has already begun generating microplastic pollution.
Thats because some60 percent of clothingtoday is made with plastic.
Polyester, nylon, acrylic, spandex theyre all just different types of fossil fuel-derived plastic fabric.
Thats about a third of all microplastics that directly enter the worlds oceans.
Just wearing plastic clothes, for instance, causes abrasion and the subsequent release of microplastics into the air.
And then theres the manufacturing stage, which is perhaps the least understood source of plastic microfiber pollution.
At the opposite end of the textile life cycle are even more opportunities for synthetic clothes to shed microplastics.
Unlike other sources of microplastics pollution, detergent pods are intentionally added to laundry.
And, unlike previous designs, PVA film could dissolve in either hot or cold water.
But some experts disagree.
At most, it might be a week, but more realistically its days to hours.
Procter and Gamble referred Grist to the American Cleaning Institutes communications team.
Getting a hold on the clothing microplastics problem will require a range of solutions.
The best filters available today can theoretically trapupwards of80 percentof laundry microplastics.
Filter-adjacent technologies like theCora BallorGuppyfriend bagthat can be placed in washing machines along with laundry may also help.
Meanwhile, scientists are trying to design clothes that wont shed so many microfibers in the first place.
Weis also called for general plastic restrictions as part of theglobal plastics treatycurrently being negotiated by the United Nations.
Yoo supports similar solutions.
In the meantime, though, shes continuing to push for the New York City bill banning PVA.
This bill is about so much more than just pods, she said.
This article originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/regulation/detergent-pods-are-only-the-start-of-clothings-microplastic-pollution-problem/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
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