The Invisible Plastic Pollution. How washing your clothes is destroying the environment.

Plastic is a low-cost versatile material that is used in every part of life, from vital medical supplies to textiles and packaging. Over 400,000,000 tonnes of plastic are produced each year and this is predicted to double by 2040 (Carniel et al., 2021). Plastic is a polymer meaning it is made up of the same repeating molecules, which are known as monomers. To form plastic, monomers are joined through a chemical reaction at a high temperature to form a large polymer (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate (PET)). In theory, the bond holding the monomers together can be broken; however, due to its rigid structure PET is highly resistant to degradation. Current recycling methods usually involve storing the plastic in landfill or shredding the plastic into smaller fragments, before being melted down to form reusable pellets. However, this recycled plastic is a downgrade of the original item, with limited uses. The majority of PET (also known as polyester) is made new with only 1% of collected textiles recycled back into textiles