Institut d'Investigació Tèxtil i Cooperació Industrial de Terrassa (INTEXTER), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech. C/Colom 15, Terrassa, Spain.
Institut d'Investigació Tèxtil i Cooperació Industrial de Terrassa (INTEXTER), Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, BarcelonaTech. C/Colom 15, Terrassa, Spain.
Environ Pollut. 2020 Oct;265(Pt B):114889. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114889. Epub 2020 May 31.
Textile microfibers are one of the most important sources within primary microplastics. These have raised environmental concerns since its recent identification as pollutants. However, there are still no accurate models to assess their contribution to the microplastic pollution. Hence, in this study, a method to estimate the mass flow of microfibers detached from household laundry that reaches aquatic environments has been developed. The method considers a set of parameters related to the detachment of microfibers, which are, basically: (1) the detachment rate of microfibers from different textile garments, (2) the volume of laundry effluents, (3) the percentage of municipal water that has been treated, (4) the type of used-water treatment applied, and, (5) the proportion of front- versus top-loading washing machines. In this way, 0.28 million tons of microfibers per year were estimated to reach aquatic environments, which is approximately half than the last published valuation. Finally, hypothetical situations were simulated to evaluate the reduction of microfibers by the modification of some of the parameters at different levels (consumer, government entities, and industry). Thus, depending on the implanted alternatives, microfibers that reach the aquatic environments could be reduced between 30% and 65%.
纺织纤维是原生微塑料的最重要来源之一。由于其最近被确定为污染物,因此这些纤维引起了环境方面的关注。然而,目前仍然没有准确的模型来评估它们对微塑料污染的贡献。因此,在这项研究中,开发了一种方法来估计从家庭洗衣中脱落并进入水生环境的微纤维的质量流。该方法考虑了与微纤维脱落相关的一组参数,这些参数主要包括:(1)不同纺织品服装的微纤维脱落率;(2)洗衣废水的体积;(3)经过处理的市政用水比例;(4)所应用的污水处理类型;以及(5)前装式和顶装式洗衣机的比例。通过这种方式,估计每年有 28 万吨微纤维进入水生环境,这大约是上一次公布的估值的一半。最后,通过模拟不同水平(消费者、政府实体和工业)的一些参数的修改,模拟了假想情况,以评估微纤维的减少量。因此,根据所采用的替代方案,进入水生环境的微纤维可能会减少 30%至 65%。