Synthetic fibres blamed as plastic pollution enters fossil record

CALIFORNIA – Plastic pollution has been found to be entering the fossil record – and synthetic microfibres from clothing are largely to blame. New research shows the amount of microscopic plastics found in sediments has doubled every 15 years since the 1940s. Most of the plastic particles found in the study were from synthetic fibres used in clothing which, said the researchers, suggested these microfibres have been freely floating into the ocean via wastewater. The findings, which have prompted the researchers to suggest we have now entered the ‘plastic age’, will once again place the spotlight on the issue of microfibre shedding from synthetic clothing.