An estimated 35 percent of all plastics in our oceans come from textile microfibres, posing a significant–but not fully understood–impact to human and marine health. While there are consumer solutions that can reduce the amount of microfibres shedding, how can we look upstream at the manufacturing process and truly tackle this problem from end-to-end?

At this webinar on Monday 13 February 2023, Forum for the Future and UNDP shared the findings from our study of microfibre shedding in textile manufacturing processes.

Together with project partners Ramatex Group, Nanyang Environment and Water Resources Institute (NEWRI), and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), our project, “Tackling Microfibres at Source”, set out to understand the impact of various textile manufacturing processes on microfibre shedding, and explore solutions that reduce shedding upstream.

The final report published on 2 Feb 2023 is available in this link: Tackling Microfibres at Source, investigating opportunities to reduce microfibre pollution from the fashion industry through textile design and manufacturing innovation