A sizeable fraction of marine microplastics pollution derives from the ‘shedding’ of textiles microfibres during clothes washing. Forum for the Future worked closely with a major textile manufacturing firm in Southeast Asia for global brands to improve industry understanding and awareness of microfiber shedding, promote the implementation of manufacturing processes that reduce shedding, and catalyze industry action for the branding of products with low microfibre shedding properties.

• Raise industry understanding of the issue
  It aims for manufacturers to understand, which manufacturing processes create the most microfibre shed, and pioneer game-changing product design and manufacturing solutions to mitigate this growing problem.

• Improved manufacturing that reduces fibre shedding
  The results of the research will inform the understanding of the changes to be made in the textile manufacturing process and materials design practices that can reduce microfibre fragmentation and release.
• Promote branding of low shedding clothing products
  The ultimate end goal of the project is to arrive at a “new normal” where minimizing microfiber shedding in product and use phases of all apparel products become a mainstream industry practice.

Feature stories:

• Why is fashion still ignoring microfibres? | Vogue Business
• Moving away from wet processing best way to avoid microfibre shedding in textile manufacturing 
• Textile industry's microfibre impact assessed
• Data meets fashion - and falls short
• Women-led innovation to refashion textiles to reduce ocean microplastics
• Pushing fashion forward to reduce microplastics pollution

IMPLEMENTATION STATUS: Completed

• Capstone event video recording: https://oceaninnovationchallenge.org/library/videos/oic-capstone-event-forum-futures-tackling-microfibre-source
• Final report, published on 2 Feb 2023: Tackling Microfibres at Source, investigating opportunities to reduce microfibre pollution from the fashion industry through textile design and manufacturing innovation
• Progress summary as of November 2022 (PDF)