COTTON KILLS, PLASTIC POLLUTES — WHAT TO WEAR?

Some years ago I decided that clothes made of polyester were more sustainable than cotton or other natural fibers. They’re tough, and last longer. They don’t stain easily, so you can wash them in cold water with minimal soap. And they don’t absorb much water, so they dry much faster. But I didn’t realize how much of my plastic wardrobe was ending up in the ocean.

A new set of studies by Mark Browne at University College Dublin shows that the ocean is turning opaque with tiny fragments of plastic pumped out of washing machines. Washing the clothes breaks off tiny pieces that pass through sewage treatment plants.

Now, it’s not clear that this is a catastrophe.

First of all, most plastics are inherently stable. It’s their very chemical stolidness that causes them to linger so long in the environment. So, unlike fertilizers and mercury, for example, plastics aren’t going to feed algae blooms or poison polar bears.

Seriously, you could eat a Patagonia fleece jacket and be just fine. (You should cut it in pieces so it passes through your digestive tract without getting tangled up.)

But physically, we just don’t know what happens when an oyster or a clam or a sponge or some other tiny diner consumes a fragment of plastic. Maybe it does get tangled up in their tiny gut.

Ack, what to wear? Cotton, which breaks down quickly in the environment? Cotton is one of the most pesticide intensive crops on the planet. And the fabric sucks up water like, well, like a sponge, which means it takes a year to dry. And those absorbent fibers eagerly absorb other stuff, so cotton clothes stain easily and have to be replaced. It’s prone to wrinkling, which means you have to burn more energy ironing it if you care about such things.

I guess I’ll stand by my plastic clothing. I’ll just stop washing it.

To torture your brain with further pros and cons, click here.