Small Fibers, Big Problem Cleaning Up Fashion From the Inside Out

By Sophia Kohler,

Founder of Smart Fashion

Picture yourself at dinner. A plate of perfectly seared salmon, fried-to-a-golden-crisp calamari, maybe even a bowl of mussels in white wine sauce. It looks fresh from the ocean. Yet alongside that seafood, something else makes its way onto your plate and into your body. Invisible, tiny pieces of plastic called microplastics travel down with each bite, slip quietly from your digestive tract into your bloodstream, and eventually reach your brain.

It sounds like science fiction, but it is backed by real science. As reported in “Nature Medicine” earlier this year, researchers at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center detected microplastics in human liver tissue, kidneys, and even the brain, where concentrations were highest. No tissue was spared.

But here is the twist no one expects: many of those plastics may have started in your closets. The researchers identified polyethylene as the most common material in these particles, the same plastic used in polyester T-shirts and other synthetic fabrics. Each time you do laundry, especially with fabrics made from synthetic materials, microscopic fibers, or microplastics, shed from your clothes, wash down the drain, and flow into rivers and oceans. There, plankton, the foundation of marine life, consume them. Fish eat the plankton, you eat the fish, and the cycle returns to your own dinner tables.

Polyester and other synthetics are already known culprits. But what is most revealing is that it is not only fiber type that determines how many microfibers escape during ordinary laundry; the way a fabric is built, such as knit versus woven, smooth versus plush, or tightly bound versus loose, is also a key factor. This summer, I explored this question in a research internship through the Talaria Summer Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Izabela Ciesielska-Wrobel, an Assistant Professor at the University of Rhode Island in the Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising, and Design, studying how fabric structure influences the volume of microplastic pollution released.

To answer this question, I set up a realistic laundry experiment at home. I prepared twenty-one fabric swatches using seven fabric types, from smooth wovens to fuzzy piles like chenille. Each swatch was cut to the same size and sealed at the edges so that any fibers collected came from the fabric itself, not from unraveling. Then, I ran two kinds of washes, repeating each three times: one regular household cycle and one using a special microfiber-catching bag. After each wash, I collected the released fibers.

The results were clear and confirmed that fabric structure also mattered. Knits shed more than wovens due to their loose, looped construction. Yet, plush wovens like velvet and chenille, along with denim, shed even more than knits. This shows that not only fiber type and structure matter, but texture as well. Bulky fabrics with loose fiber ends shed the most during washing, while smooth fabrics such as jersey and plain-woven cotton shed far less. Containment reduced the number of fibers in the wash water, but it did not solve the problem.

So what can you do? Microplastic pollution is a global issue, but the solutions can start in your home. Choosing smooth, tightly woven fabrics such as cotton or linen over fuzzy ones like fleece, chenille, or velvet can make a difference. Washing clothes less frequently and using cold water and gentle cycles can reduce fiber shedding. Containment tools can trap some microplastics before they flow into wastewater. And on a larger scale, you can support brands and policies that push for sustainable fabrics that shed less and last longer.

The trail of microfiber pollution runs from the fabric in your closet to the fish on our plates, and even into the human brain. The evidence is clear, and so is the responsibility. It is time to clean up fashion from the inside out.