Correlation between Different Laundry Parameters and Distressed, Damaged and Fuzzy Clothing Inrelation to Microfibers Detachment

Abstract

The influence of the clothing type, and the laundry washing parameters have a huge impact on the number of microfibers/fibers being shed during the domestic laundry trials. Distressed and damaged clothing was identified as one of the important aspects of microfiber (MFs) pollution. Although some of the factors affecting the MFs shedding are still to be explored, thus there is a need for rigorous methods of identification and quantification to understand this shedding. A novel method was adopted using different combinations of wash loads and their corresponding temperature, and wash duration on the amount of MFs being shed. Results concluded that recycled polyester fleece and distressed jeans showed heightened shedding levels (approx. 49% of total emission). When real consumer laundry was compared to laboratory laundry, consumer domestic laundry is producing 110% more MFs than the laboratory-tested fabrics. High temperature and increased wash time have a positive correlation (p-value <0.05) to the number of MFs shed.