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March 21, 2017

Yoga pants, cozy clothes may be big source of sea pollution

  • Experts say new technology in both washing machines and wastewater treatment plants is needed to filter out the tiny plastic fibers that end up in marine animals.
    • By JENNIFER KAY
    Associated Press

    KEY LARGO, Fla. — Comfortable clothes are emerging as a source of plastic that's increasingly ending up in the oceans and potentially contaminating seafood, according to Gulf Coast researchers launching a two-year study of microscopic plastics in the waters from south Texas to the Florida Keys.

    The project , led by the Mississippi-Alabam Sea Grant Consortium, will rely partly on volunteers in coastal cleanup events. It also will expand a year's worth of data collected around Florida that predominantly found microfibers — shreds of plastic even smaller than microbeads flowing down bathroom sinks and shower drains.


     
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