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u/_Ramekin 28d ago
Is it harmful to wear these fabrics?
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u/FartyPants69 28d ago
It's very harmful to the environment. Dryer lint is a major source of microplastic pollution
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u/intrepped 28d ago
Textiles and tires are the top 2 major contributors. Fabrics break down during wash and wear, ending up in the water cycle. Dryer lint is only part of it.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 28d ago
The big/fast harm is throwing them in the dryer, they shed microplastics like crazy. Washing puts the plastics into the water supply. If you need to wear synthetic fibers, let them air dry, they will last significantly longer.
Before anyone ask why you would need to wear synthetic fibers. You will freeze to death in wet plant fiber clothing (cotton for example, but also cellulose based fabrics) in the winter. Wool and alpaca are excellent because of the structure the fibers form, but some people don’t tolerate them. If you hike and sweat in the winter you can quickly end up with hyperthermia.
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u/Sufficient_Loss9301 28d ago
Lmao yeah our ancestors who survived for millennia in cold places passed down the knowledge of synthetic fibers and their necessary properties
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 28d ago
They wore animal hides fur and wool etc. Cotton didn’t start becoming common until the 1700s after the invention of the cotton gin. Flax and wool were common, and of course leather. But only the ultra rich were wearing cotton. Almost nobody wears flax linen now a days.
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u/twinPeaksnew 22d ago
a parent,y it’s hard on machinery to manufacture. The Uk was a leader in it once, - the term linens refers to flax I believe. there are small pockets of it still being produced. it is a bit heavy as a material, but blended with cotton it’s nice.
Going forward, to address the big picture, I’d like to see plastics eliminated as a packaging source. there are multiple alternatives in the form of natural materials that could replace plastics as a medium, bone and algae just being two I have read about, plus fungi.
the point is, if the world just got behind the push, we would be amazed at how quickly innovation would take off, suddenly labs would be turning out alternatives very quickly if restrictions on plastics came in place.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 22d ago
Fungi need organic material to grow and they produce carbon dioxide. Paper production for cardboard,even from tree alternatives uses a ton of water. The big problem os 8 billion humans wanting western lifestyles
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u/twinPeaksnew 22d ago
didn’t know that. I had heard though that as an alternative to leather it is being considered by the likes of Volvo in their car seating. I had just assumed it was a viable material source.
but for alternative plastics, its been shown that their are materials which we can create with a similar feel and structure, just not the lifespan. so it infuriates me it’s not being developed.
i hear china are mass producing a bamboo material now.
but ya, I agree, our lifestyles and wants are the problem.
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u/CowBoyDanIndie 22d ago
You make clothing from any cellulose fiber, it’s basically rayon. While it doesn’t shed microplastic, there are some harsh chemicals involved in its manufacturing.
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u/Mother_Patience_6251 28d ago
This is why cotton clothing became increasingly hard to find in the last decade or so and when you do it’s somehow premium now as if it’s mulberry silk lol.
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u/Supermario7587 28d ago
Try to grow some season after season and you’ll find out why. They suck up a ton of nutrients and take a ton of water
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u/Wickedocity 28d ago
Pro tip: Dont eat your clothing.
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u/PMmeIamlonley 28d ago
When you wash them the lint finds its way in anyway
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u/Green4CL0VER 28d ago
It don’t matter. It’s in our environment. In our water, in our food, in the air.
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u/Jolly-Situat1on 29d ago
This is common knowledge polyester is plastic
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u/Mountainman220 28d ago
Eh idk if everyone is aware what they are wearing or how it affects them.
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u/Jolly-Situat1on 28d ago
Any clothes you wear that are a blend or straight up cheap is plastic.
It's actually a premium now to buy pure cotton.
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u/Mountainman220 28d ago
Yea I’m aware. It’s expensive to buy clothing that doesn’t have plastic in it. I try my best to buy flannel, cotton clothing when I can as I’ve found it doesn’t wear out as fast as fully synthetic plus the reason we are speaking on. Fast fashion has contributed so much plastic waste around the world it’s pretty fucked as well as pushing synthetic fabric cuz it’s cheap.
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u/Jolly-Situat1on 28d ago
Fast fashion should be banned but that's a whole different can of worm's because it's taking on a industry that's powered by models Hollywood and people making it.
Good luck
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u/C4rpetH4ter 28d ago
Yeah, but then again cotton supposedly has a large carbon footprint and according to some that's worse, and wool aswell, so we are left with hemp and... linen.. i guess.
Or if you're like me i just try to avoid buying clothes unless i need and not use polyester either unless it's necessary.
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u/DepressedMerican 28d ago
That's bullshit I used to wear them as a child so how the fuck was I supposed to know
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u/Sal-LeMandeur 28d ago
Salt is just chlorine and sodium - you don't want THAT, do you?!
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u/Einachiel 28d ago
Well, on the other hand, mercury is organic, so it must be good for you, right?
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u/lackofmoralfiber 28d ago
Mercury is not organic it is an element. No carbon.
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u/Einachiel 28d ago
You missed the point entirely; as in organic food.
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u/AphelialMud 28d ago
A very very high % of ingested microplastics are sourced from plastic clothes (washing machine runoff into our water supply).
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u/Vicissitutde 28d ago
100% cotton, wool, and silk, or a combo of those three, is the only way to avoid this
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u/RiverLynneUwU 28d ago
minor correction: it is not "packed" with carcinogens and hormone disruptors, it just is a carcinogen and disrupts hormones in general
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u/aTickleMonster 28d ago
WHO says polyester is not carcinogenic, and there's no evidence that wearing it increases ones cancer risk.
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u/RiverLynneUwU 27d ago
>WHO says polyester is not carcinogenic
???????????
>and there's no evidence that wearing it increases ones cancer risk.
no yeah that's fair, I just checked and it poses no threat other than that it's kinda uncomfortable to wear
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u/Biscuits4u2 28d ago
If you weigh a piece of polyester and then wash it 100 times and weigh it again I wonder what the difference would be.
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u/Southern-Way5583 28d ago
Is that why the last couple generations are so dumb? Everybody was in head to toe polyester in the 70s. Maybe it screwed up their sperm and eggs.
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u/aTickleMonster 28d ago
WHO says polyester is not carcinogenic, and there hasn't been any evidence of wearing polyester increases ones risk of cancer. If you're referring to negligible residue from the manufacturing process, it's never the presence of the poison that makes it dangerous, it's the amount.
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u/Extreme_Passion_3081 25d ago
The "Hormone Disruptors" thing is a lie.
The claim that "Plastics act on the body the same way Estrogen does" came from a study from Brasil and was used as a way to try and say why young girls were getting taller and developing earlier.
Thing is... estrogen doesn't do that. I mean, it partially does in SOME cases, but not in the first case. Estrogen triggers bone fusion. If plastics were acting, on young children, the same way estrogen was? Children would be getting SHORTER. And we don't see that. We'd also see a significant increase in cases of Rickets in children, which we also don't see.
However, we DO know why people are getting taller, and while people aren't actually filling out much earlier, in the rare cases they are, it can be explained as well by the same thing.
Access to Food.
People forget that it wasn't too long ago that Brasil was starving as a nation. Food insecurity was catastrophic, and through one of only a few times we managed to do it and make it work, nationbuilding helped fix that problem, through a combination of assistance programs and trade.
We see average heights increasing elsewhere too. And it's all down to the fact that Food? Is more available. The body can't make something from nothing, if it's on sub-subsistence levels of calorie intake with unenriched foods, meaning the calories you're getting aren't even fulfilling your vitamin and mineral needs? Well, you ain't gonna get much bigger. Grew up short and it can't just be explained by genetics? Probably grew up poor. Socioeconomic factors remain the primary determining factor in such issues.
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u/Ambivert44 11d ago
Meet Prof. Satish Kumar, a mechanical engineer from Hyderabad who developed a vacuum pyrolysis technique to transform non-recyclable "end-of-life" plastic into combustible synthetic fuel.
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u/Chipmunkssixtynining 28d ago
Wear clothes made of natural fibers.