While the Trump Administration pours cold water on global warming alarmist policies, eco-activists are questing for a scary new pollutant.
The bad news: They found one.
The good news: The major contributor of plastic microfibers, the pollutant being studied by researchers, are clothing items most enjoyed by environmental justice warriors.
Plastic fibers from yoga pants and fleece jackets may be polluting the oceans and finding their way into fish, oysters, and other wildlife, researchers say.Clothes made from nylon, polyester and other synthetic materials shed microscopic plastic fibers every time they’re washed. The ‘microfibers’ are then flushed into the waterways and eventually make their way into the sea.One study, conducted by volunteers in Florida, revealed 89 percent of their samples included at least one piece of plastic. Among those, microfibers made up 82 percent of the plastic found.
The project is being led by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will rely partly on volunteers in coastal cleanup events. The researchers hope to expand a year’s worth of data collected around Florida that predominantly found microfibers that were the result of flow from residential water sources carrying fiber cast off from the active wear so loved by progressives everywhere.
Yoga pants, fleece jackets, sweat-wicking athletic wear and other garments made from synthetic materials shed microscopic plastic fibers — called “microfibers” — when laundered. Wastewater systems flush the microfibers into natural waterways, eventually reaching the sea.”Anything that’s nylon or polyester, like the fleece-type jackets,” University of Florida researcher Maia McGuire said.When McGuire set out to study the kinds of plastic found in Florida waters, she expected to mostly find microbeads — the brightly-colored plastic spheres the U.S. government banned from rinse-off cosmetic products in 2015 because of the potential threat to fish and other wildlife.Instead, McGuire predominantly found microfibers, even smaller than microbeads and coming from places most people don’t consider dangerous to marine life: their closets.
The makers of the clothing items in question have begun to virtue-signal early.
…The emerging data has prompted clothing company Patagonia — which makes fleece jackets and other apparel from synthetic materials — to support research into the prevalence of microfiber pollution and promote information for consumers about ways to minimize microfiber shedding in laundry.Consumer-focused efforts such as Patagonia’s outreach, liquor giant Bacardi’s decision to stop adding plastic straws and stirrers to cocktails at company events, Miami Beach’s ban on Styrofoam containers or the federal microbeads ban can help slow the rate of microfibers and other plastics adding up in the oceans, but the pollution also needs to be addressed at its source and at wastewater treatment plants, Wessel said.“It would be really great if the washing machine companies would get on board and come up with a filter to trap these microfibers,” Wessel said. “I think there’s a big push right now — nobody really disagrees that marine debris is an issue that needs to be addressed.”
Just like the evil auto manufacturers and big oil are being forced to address “green house gas emissions”, now big appliance are being target to force them to create the technology to save the fish.
No word if Leonardo DiCaprio or Al Gore are going to go naked until the microfiber crisis is solved.
But this is me if they try to take my comfy dance class pants:
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY