Microplastic Bioaccumulation from Synthetic Clothing Discovered in Food Chain -- Another On-Going Sustainability Violation

New research from UCSB (see BBC) reveals consistent pollution patterns of microplastics around the world, with higher concentrations at beaches located near sewage disposal points. This violates one principle for a sustainable society in the biosphere--the systematic accumulation of human-made compounds that natural cycles cannot break down and cycle. The violation creates business risks for firms and reveals economic distortion and inefficiency. Smart firms will self-regulate through innovation to substitute materials and processes that eliminate pollution. For all others, regulations should be passed to protect human and environmental heath, and to spur the innovation required industry-wide to correct a source of distorting, inefficient economic activity related to imperfect price signals. Doing so will strengthen the economy and move the economy and society towards sustainability. 

Experiments sampling wastewater from domestic washing machines demonstrated that a single [synthetic] garment can produce >1900 fibers per wash (see Environmental Science & Technology). This suggests that a large proportion of microplastic fibers found in the marine environment may be derived from sewage as a consequence of washing of clothes.

"Once the plastics had been eaten, it transferred from [the animals'] stomachs to their circulation system and actually accumulated in their cells. . . . When we looked at the different types of polymers we were finding, we were finding that polyester, acrylic and polyamides (nylon) were the major ones that we were finding. The data also showed that the concentration of microplastic was greatest in areas near large urban centers."

As the human population grows and people use more synthetic textiles, contamination of habitats and animals by microplastic is likely to increase. These results follow earlier studies (2004).

With "plastic debris <1 mm (defined here as microplastic) accumulating in marine habitats, the ingestion of microplastic provides a potential pathway for the transfer of pollutants, monomers, and plastic-additives to organisms with uncertain consequences for their health.

This trend is a clear violation of Sustainability Principle 2, human-made material that cannot be broken down in nature's cycles cannot systematically increase in the biosphere (see The Four Systems Conditions for a sustainable society in the biosphere).

Although the health consequences are now labeled "uncertain," the past 200 years of humanity's industrial economic experiment pumping persistent inorganic compounds into the environment should give us pause.That experience does not suggest benign or positive benefits, but the opposite, only to be discovered after it is too late.

The risks of this action to the participating firms are increasing regulation, cost, and ultimately legal liability for clean up, if not ultimately for the impairment of human health. Thus, smart firms will stop using existing synthetics altogether by substituting organic material, innovate to create a competitive advantage for the substitute material, or at least undertake innovative R&D to produce another form of synthetic material that is not a washing-induced pollution source. By so doing, these smart firms will avoid the future risks, create a better business model, and contribute to society's transition to an ecologically regenerative economy and society.

Government environment and health regulators from around the world should immediately undertake studies to quickly form the basis for regulations to protect human health and well being and correct and strengthen the economy by reducing and eventually eliminating such pollution. Such regulations spur the industry-wide innovation and changes that the recent studies imply and require. Doing so creates a stronger, more vital, and healthier economy by addressing sources of uneconomic activity that are not revealed through the powerful but imperfect price-mechanism and whose existence distorts the economy with inefficient investment and production.

Finally, legislators should also begin to reform the legal system so that all violations of the sustainability principles (those principles required to produce and maintain the sustainability of society in the biosphere), are illegal forever more. Past violations can be explained and excused because of societal ignorance and incapacity. Current and future violations can no longer be explained or excused for these reasons. We now know and have the capacity to begin solving these problems. Knowing implies responsibility and action to do what is right--eliminate the invisible sources of economic distortion of a human economy that are systematically destroying the more fundamental economy of nature before the window of opportunity to respond effectively closes in a few short . . . , years to decades).