Microfibre report urges action upstream

AMSTERDAM — Textile manufacturing releases an estimated 92,145 tonnes of microfibres into wastewater streams every year, with around 58,000 tonnes ultimately leaking into land and water, according to a new global study backed by brands including Patagonia, Under Armour and Decathlon.

The report, From Shedding to Solutions by EA Earth Action and the Nature Conservancy, is billed as the first system-level baseline of production-phase microfibre losses, tracing emissions from wet processing through industrial and municipal wastewater treatment into sludge disposal pathways.