STOP fibrous microplastic pollution from textiles by elucidating fibre damage and manufacturing novel textiles

Start date: 1 January 2021
End date: 31 March 2025
Funder: Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Primary investigator: Professor Muhammad Tausif
Co-investigators: Dr Greg de Boer (School of Mechanical Engineering)
External co-investigators: Dr Dongmin Yang (University of Edinburgh), Professor Michael Bryant (University of Birmingham)
Postgraduate students: Dr Abdul Jabbar (PDRA)

Value

£780,729

Partners and collaborators

Gap Inc., The Microfiber Consortium, Culimeta Saveguard Limited

STOP textiles microplastics pollution EPSRC project logo

Description

Microplastics have been detected in all aquatic habitats, from deep oceans to polar icemelt and can be found in the guts and tissues of aquatic animals. More than one third of the microplastics found in the world oceans are fibrous microplastics from textiles. The fibrous microplastics are released throughout the lifecycle of a textile and their presence in aquatic and terrestrial environments is now well-established phenomena. The washing of textiles annual releases an estimated 0.5 million tonnes fibrous microplastics ocean pollution, which at current rates is expected to accumulate to 22 million tonnes by 2050.

Any remedial measures are challenging given the ubiquity of fibrous microplastics from textiles. Improved plastics with reduced environmental impact, plastic recycling and reduced consumption are extremely important but the release of fibrous microplastics from textiles remains a challenge. Here, we address this challenge by bringing together textile technology, computational modelling and tribology disciplines into a systematic programme of research. The overarching goal of this project is to experimentally and computationally elucidate fibre damage that leads to the generation of fibrous microplastics and use predictive computational modelling to inform the engineering of innovative textile structures which STOP the release of fibrous microplastics from textiles. The success of the project will

- create a fundamental understanding of the fibre damage (that leads to the generation of fibrous microplastics) and microstructural changes in textiles.

- build realistic and predictive computational wear models of the textile materials and open new avenues for research.

- develop industrially and commercially relevant solutions to STOP the release of fibrous microplastics from textiles.