MICROPLASTIC ACTION PLAN

“The dramatic increase of microfibres in our rivers and coastal waters represents an alarming environmental and public health issue,” said Sen. Kennedy. “Most consumers are not aware of how clothing fibres and microscopic pieces of plastic lint from synthetic fabrics are poisoning our waterways and our food supply. Clothing manufacturers cannot continue to deny responsibility for the economic, environmental and public health costs of microplastic pollution. We need to engage the apparel industry to help develop a consumer awareness and microfibre reduction action plan.”
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POLYESTER APPAREL IS A PLASTIC POLLUTANT

Polyester apparel is a single wash plastic pollutant, even when it is recycled polyester.

Although our synthetic clothes cannot be described as 'single use plastics'. They do shed thousands of microplastics from a single wash. We must therefore include our synthetic clothes in discussions regarding plastic pollution. Polyester is the dominant fibre in the fashion industry, with a 60% market share and forecast to increase over the next decade.

Sportswear requires frequent washing and made solely from plastic fibres. As an interim measure we are trying persuade governing bodies of sport, sportswear brands sponsored clubs and individual star athletes to use a filter when washing their plastic kit. This measure will help reduce the number of microplastics washed into the ocean from laundering our synthetic clothes.

Golf Refugees are also hoping to work with the UK Fashion & Textile organisation to develop a new washing care symbol for a 'filter wash' to be included on synthetic clothing label
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PLASTIC AIR

Around 16% of the plastic produced annually in the world consists of textile fibres. Synthetic clothing is responsible for endless amounts of microfibres which can even be found in drinking water.

An earlier French study showed that plastic microfibres are not just in outdoor air, they are also present inside buildings and in particular in dust on the floor. An analysis of fibres in the air shows that 29% is plastic. Research has already shown that people breathe in microfibres. Indoors it is babies that crawl on the floor, who breathe in the most fibres.

The findings in the article conclude:

the concentration of plastic fibres in the air indoors is substantially higher than in the air outdoors, indoor fibres are also longer;

plastic particles are found in lung tissue. This indicates that the body is not able to rid itself of all particles;

when particles remain in the lungs, they remain there for a long time because they are bio-persistent;

workers who handle plastic textile fibres are known to suffer from many types of lung disease, from coughing to limited lung capacity;

Plastic Soup Foundation

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USE A FILTER TO WASH YOUR POLYESTER APPAREL

The numbers are mind boggling.

From a single kit sponsorship deal with a Premiership football club. Adidas predict sales of replica shirts, over the ten year duration of the contract, to exceed £1.5 billion. At £50 per replica shirt, this translates to 3 million shirt sales per annum.

This represents a potential shedding of 12,400 microfibres from a single wash of a single replica polyester football shirt.- Plymouth University research data

If you wash the 3 million replica football shirts once per week. Adidas are potentially generating 37,200,000,000 microfibres per week, from just a single club sponsorship deal.

To try and imagine this figure, it corresponds to the number of cells you have in your body.

This is why we are asking sportswear brands to direct their sponsored clubs to use a filter when washing their polyester kit. To help reduce billions of microplastics from reaching the oceans.
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A BETTER FOOTBALL SHIRT 2018

In 2018 there will be the 21 st FIFA Football (Soccer) World Cup being held in Russia.

No doubt all of the leading sportswear brands will be supplying teams with polyester kit that shed thousands of plastic microfibres when washed.

A single wash of an average size machine load (6 kg) of polyester can shed 496,030 microfibres, according to research by Plymouth University. Just imagine how many ocean polluting plastic microfibres are shed during the entire season? There must be a better football shirt?

We are calling out to fashion schools, individual designers and organisations / brands that represent particular fibres to create 'a better football shirt'. A better football shirt for the player and the environment.

And where former and present professional footballers can judge the submitted designs for 'a better football shirt'.#abetterfootballshirt
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UK ELECTION

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YOUR NHS

MODERN SPORTSWEAR

When discussing sportswear you are really talking about polyester. An established sports brand using 120 kg of polyester (including recycled polyester) annually, will shed from washing their garments once a week; 728 million plastic microfibres per year.

This simple calculation undermines any statements that sportswear brands are sustainable.

Microfibres are the biggest ocean polluting issue you've never heard of.
#sportswearunsustainable #plasticoceanpollution #polyestermicrofibres
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SAVE THE K SIGNATURE BALL

Can the K-signature ball be saved? This tour spec ball at $15 per doz was great for consumers but bad news for the business models of OEM's.

Could someone (group) place a large order for these balls with Nassau and supply again via another retailer? Golf Refugees have a quote from the manufacturer, we will see if this quote is still valid.

There could be other manufacturers who produce a tour-spec 3 / 4 - piece ball. MyGolf Spy could ask and test these to see which is best and comparable to the performance of the Korean Nassau / Kirkland ball.

Our idea would be for a 'consumer ball'. Where the packaging could depict images from people who place orders.
#kirklandsignature #consumerball #golfrefugees ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

MAKES YOU THINK REMIX

MAKES YOU THINK

CHELSEA FOOTBALL CLUB

Chelsea football club are in their final year of a kit deal with Adidas, before starting a new £60 million per season shirt sponsorship with Nike.

So we thought we’d ask them a couple of simple questions regarding their football shirts;

What material(s) are this seasons authentic & replica Chelsea football shirts made from?

Will they shed any plastic microfibres when washed?

Cheslea’s customer services reply;

Dear Customer

Thank you for your email to Chelsea Customer Services. I can confirm that the authentic shirt is exactly the same shirt that the players will wear during matches these shirts are made of slightly higher quality materials than the replicas. The authentic shirts are also much tighter than the replica and are designed to be skin tight.

The replica shirts are as the name suggests a replica of the shirts that the players wear. These are designed for fans that will not necessarily require all the technology in the authentic shirts, they are also a looser fit than the authentic shirts so may be a more comfortable option.

Any further questions?
Please contact us and we’ll aim to respond to you within 24 hours.
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PLANKTON AND POLYESTER

Scientists have shown for the first time that the ingestion of polyester textile microfibres can prove fatal to freshwater zooplankton – an integral part of the early-stage food chain for many different aquatic species. This research backs up other reports published that show how oceanic synthetic textile microfibres can also accumulate hazardous pollutants, which adsorb to their large, fibrous surface areas.

Which poses the question; Should our sport stars be wearing and promoting polyester clothing?#zooplanktonlivesmatter
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GOLF REFUGEES

A REALLY BIG DEAL

Research has revealed that 52% of all fabric on Earth—from underwear to yoga pants—is made of synthetic (plastic) fibres. And the trend is towards more synthetic fabric, not less, which means more shedding of microfibres into the environment, more plastic in fish and more plastic in us.

In sectors such as sportswear, which requires frequent washing, plastic synthetic fibres are already the dominant fibre.

We've also learned that the best estimate for how many of these plastic microfibres are currently in the oceans is about 1.4 million trillion. In fact, microfibres are the single largest (by count) contributor to plastic pollution in our waters, because of their size and availability to living things, they’re a really big deal.
#sportswear #microfibres #plasticoceanpollution

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A BETTER WAY

Sport is meant to be a healthy pursuit, we want our kids to play sport.

But there must be a better way than clothing them in plastic, where shirts contain hidden carcinogens and hormone disruptor chemicals. If that's not enough, when you come to wash these polyester shirts they each shed up to 19,000 microfibre particles, which are mistaken for food my marine life and end up in our own food chain. The oceans are being turned into a plastic smog.

I would argue leading sportswear brands have turned sport into a human and environmental wasteland.

There must be a better way forward than this.
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I DON'T WANT TO GO TO CHELSEA

Chelsea has signed a new kit deal with US sportswear giant Nike.The deal is reported to be worth £60 million a season for the next 15 years.
I wonder if the young female textile workers received a pay rise?
Nike will produce strips for the first team, academy and ladies teams, as well as replica kit and clothing for the club's fans.
Like most large Premier League football clubs Chelsea is looking to expand its fan, and commercial, base into areas such as East and South East Asia, and also North America.

Is manufacturing and promoting more polyester sport shirts around the world, which shed plastic microfibre particles every time they are washed, a good idea?

Our oceans and marine life are reaching a tipping point with plastic ocean pollution.
#Nike #plasticoceanpollution #polyester #sportswear #chelsea
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NEED TO KNOW

It is cheap to use toxic petrochemicals, and expensive to reformulate products so they aren't toxic. Removing a carcinogen or hormone disruptor from a shampoo, or fragrance, or sport shirt, or lipstick, or laundry detergent, and replacing it with a safer chemical is expensive. “Too expensive,” say the brands, and so far, governments haven’t found a way to force them to take out the toxins.

To make matters worse, companies don’t have to disclose dangerous chemicals on product labels. Why don’t companies want us to know all the ingredients that go into their products? The answer is simple: they’re afraid of losing a sale. If you knew there were toxic chemicals in something you bought every day, you would stop buying it - JW
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WHY

If I buy a bright yellow sport shirt; it will inform me of the main fabric material, where it is manufactured and how to wash it.

If I buy just a bright yellow textile dye from the same shop; it will disclose a list of the all chemicals in the synthetic dye and has a toxic warning symbol on the packaging.

Why?

You can buy the synthetic dye, the anti-bacterial textile finish, the moisture-wicking textile finish all separately; these individual textile products disclose the chemicals they use.

If you combine all of the textile products to produce a brightly coloured, moisture-wicking, anti-bacterial sport shirt; you don't have to disclose a single chemical.

Why?
#Disclosure
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EVIAN CHAMPIONSHIP

Looking forward to The Evian Championship, women's golf fifth major. Hey Evian; A plastic water bottle, for example, takes roughly 450 years to disintegrate. Just a thought.

Pictures posted on social media from star players greeted with their own plastic water bottles. Contents may only last a few minutes, golfers tens of years and the plastic bottle hundreds of years. It doesn't add up.

#evianchampionship2016
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