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Every wash sheds something. What comes off a polyester shirt does not rot.
A synthetic garment sheds plastic fibres every time it is washed, and they are small enough to leave the treatment plant. What the research actually shows, and what changing fibre does and does not fix.
Awareness of microplastics has climbed sharply. One industry survey puts consumer awareness at 41 per cent, against 17 per cent in 2017, and more than half of the people asked now say they would prefer a garment made from fibres that do not shed plastic. That is a large change in a short time, and it has arrived from an unusual direction: not from environmental campaigning but from people worrying about what is next to their skin and in their water. He...