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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