A novel approach to microfibre mitigation

Microfibre capture potential 

Plastic pollution is a globally recognized problem and reached over (an estimated) 322 million metric tonnes in 2016. During the same period, over 100 tonnes of textile fibres were produced. Once microfibers are released into the environment, they become exceedingly difficult to remove.

Microplastics (MPs) and other micropollutants have been detected in marine environments, wastewaters, surface waters, soils, sediments, food and air. MPs can absorb organic contaminants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which are potentially ingested by organisms and introduced into the food chain. The toxicological ramifications of MPs and other micro-pollutants pose a serious risk to terrestrial and marine organisms. 

I recently read an interesting paper here on the mitigation of micropollutant emissions. The paper demonstrated washing machine filters as an effective solution to capture microfibres before they're released into the environment. This is a novel example of microplastic capture that can be applied at a large scale and (relatively) cheaply.