Why your Fleece is Part of the Plastic Soup

One of my favourite winter jackets is made of fleece. Unfortunately, that is bad. I learned that, when I updated my lecture about plastic pollution which I hold on ships. I once again realized, how often we contribute to the pollution and intoxication of our planet, without even being aware of it. The Alfred-Wegener-Institut for Polar- and Marine Research gave me some material, in which I found the following: With every washing of a fleece-sweater, about 1900 fibres are washed out. The fibres get into the wastewater, and many sewage plants cannot filter them. As a result, they become part of the micro plastic-problem. These particles enter our food chain. Either because a fish eats them, or because the softeners of the plastic go into the water, or both. There are many variations, how plastic finds his way back to us. Sure is only: It comes back.

A study in Spitsbergen has now shown, that Fleece-Sweaters are not at all a small part of the problem.

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