Washing your clothes can pollute the Arctic with microplastics

Tests on washing machines done estimate that a single item of clothing can release millions of fibres during a normal domestic wash. Photo: AFP

Households in Europe and North America are flooding the oceans with plastic pollution simply by washing their clothes, scientists said recently after research found the majority of microplastics in Arctic seawater were polyester fibres.

Plastic particles have infiltrated even the most remote and seemingly-pristine regions of the planet.