在淡水中微塑料的比较大来源是洗衣粉

在淡水中微塑料的最大来源是洗衣粉

When you clean out your dryer lint screen, you get a clump of fluff that comes from your clothes and other laundry. But that's not the only place these fibers are going.

当你清理干衣机的棉絮屏幕时，你的衣服和其他衣物上会产生一团绒毛。但这并不是这些纤维的唯一去处。

Lint from your clothing is likely in your drinking water. (Photo: optimarc/science photo/Shutterstock)

Sometimes they never even make it to the dryer.

有时他们甚至连烘干机都进不去。

According to new research, 60% of the microplastics in our fresh water come from laundry fibers. When we wash our clothes, towels and sheets, microfibers break off and wash away. They make their way into wastewater treatment facilities and from there, to lakes and other large bodies of water.

根据最新研究，我们的淡水中60%的微塑料来自洗衣纤维。当我们洗衣服、毛巾和床单时，纤维会脱落并被冲走。它们进入废水处理设施，然后从那里进入湖泊和其他大型水体。

"I was surprised although, like, you kind of go 'Oh I really shouldn't have been,' " Penn State Behrend chemist Sherri Mason tells Scientific American. "Because we all clean out our lint filters on our dryers. We should be like, 'Oh of course if it's coming off in the dryer that whole process is starting in the washer.'"

宾夕法尼亚州立大学贝伦德分校的化学家谢莉·梅森告诉《科学美国人》杂志说:“我很惊讶，尽管你可能会说，‘哦，我真的不应该那样做。’”“因为我们都会清理烘干机上的棉絮过滤器。我们应该说，‘哦，当然，如果它在烘干机里掉了，整个过程就是在洗衣机里开始的。’”

Mason analyzed 90 water samples taken from 17 different water treatment facilities across the U.S. In her report, which was published in American Scientist, Mason found that each facility was releasing an average of more than 4 million pieces of microplastic into waterways every day. Of those microplastics, 60% are fibers from clothing and other fabrics. A little over a third are from microbeads — tiny plastic specks used in personal products, that were banned in the U.S. in 2018. The remaining 6% are from films and foams.

梅森在发表于《美国科学家》(American Scientist)杂志上的报告中分析了来自全美17个不同水处理设施的90个水样。在这些微塑料中，60%是来自服装和其他织物的纤维。超过三分之一的塑料微粒来自微珠——一种用于个人产品的微小塑料微粒，2018年在美国被禁止使用。剩下的6%来自电影和泡沫。

Natural materials also shed fibers in the washing machine and dryer, but Mason says microbes are able to digest them, but the same isn't true for fibers made from synthetic textiles. Those are non-biodegradable and may linger in the ecosystem for centuries.

天然材料也会在洗衣机和烘干机中脱落纤维，但梅森说，微生物能够消化它们，但合成纺织品制成的纤维并非如此。它们是不可生物降解的，可能会在生态系统中存在几个世纪。

Making their way into fresh water

进入淡水

Wastewater treatment plants weren't built to filter out microplastics. (Photo: Montgomery County Planning Commission [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

Mason points out that there are 15,000 wastewater treatment facilities in the U.S. They were designed to remove urine, fecal matter and microbes that can negatively impact the environment. But they weren't built to remove plastics. Some studies show that treatment facilities can remove somewhere between 75% and 99% of microplastics. But billions of these microplastics still make their way into our fresh water. A study published earlier this year in called Human Consumption of Microplastics found that Americans eat, drink and inhale between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year.

梅森指出，美国有1.5万个废水处理设施，它们的设计目的是去除对环境有负面影响的尿液、粪便和微生物。但它们不是用来清除塑料的。一些研究表明，处理设备可以去除75%到99%的塑料微粒。但是数十亿的塑料微粒仍然会进入我们的淡水中。今年早些时候发表在《人类对微塑料的消费》(Human Consumption of microplastic)杂志上的一项研究发现，美国人每年食用、饮用和吸入的微塑料颗粒在7.4万至12.1万粒之间。

Mason says information is power and consumers are taking action. Just like microbeads were banned, people are working to reduce plastic production and consumption. She suggests that each person can reduce plastic use while also lobbying businesses to use alternative materials and reusable containers.

梅森说，信息就是力量，消费者正在采取行动。就像禁止使用微珠一样，人们也在努力减少塑料的生产和消费。她建议，每个人都可以减少塑料的使用，同时游说企业使用替代材料和可重复使用的容器。

"The plastic we use ultimately comes back to us in the food we eat and the water we drink," Mason says in her report. "Although this is scary and a bit distressing, it also means we can make positive changes."

梅森在她的报告中说:“我们使用的塑料最终会回到我们吃的食物和喝的水中。”“虽然这很可怕，也有点令人沮丧，但这也意味着我们可以做出积极的改变。”