The study focused on a relatively small number of garments from five major brands, and the results provide only an indication of likely pollution rates. T-shirts, tops, dresses and shorts sold by Adidas, H&M, Nike, Shein and Zara were tested.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The study is the first to compare brands for microplastic pollution, Changing Markets believes. The brands are among the fashion world\u2019s biggest producers and users of synthetic fabrics, according to a recent Changing Markets survey<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nike polyester clothing was found to be the most polluting, for both virgin and recycled fabric. The brand\u2019s recycled polyester shed over 30,000 fibres per gram of sample clothing on average, nearly four times H&M\u2019s average and over seven times Zara\u2019s average.<\/p>\n Shein clothing also stood out. Its recycled polyester garments shed microplastics at around the same rate as its virgin polyester clothing.<\/p>\n Overproduction<\/p>\n Even before today\u2019s findings, environmentalists concluded that fashion\u2019s recycled polyester drive is largely greenwash.\u00a0<\/p>\n Polyester clothes recycling systems are seen as \u201cimportant<\/a>\u201d but also \u201cin development\u201d and only able to process \u201caround two per cent of all recycled polyester\u201d. In contrast, the drinks sector can repeatedly reuse waste plastic bottles, but now has to compete with fashion brands for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n Meanwhile, fashion\u2019s use of virgin polyester is growing so fast that the share of recycled polyester last year actually fell<\/a>. The low cost of synthetic fabrics, now being produced at record highs<\/a>, has driven huge overproduction, overconsumption and waste.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Puma said: “Our shedding test results on 100 per cent recycled polyester, and 100 per cent virgin polyester fabrics show that recycled polyester does not consistently shed more or less microfibers than virgin polyester.”<\/p>\n A spokesperson for H&M told The Ecologist: “We believe that microfibres need to be addressed at several stages throughout our value chain, including design, production, use and end-of-life, which is why we cooperate\u202fwith other stakeholders to find effective solutions.”<\/p>\n The Ecologist has contacted Adidas and Patagonia for comment.<\/p>\n This Author<\/p>\n Brendan Montague is an editor of The Ecologist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The study focused on a relatively small number of garments from five major brands, and the results provide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":{"0":"post-180241","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}