在淡水中微塑料的比較大來源是洗衣粉

在淡水中微塑料的最大來源是洗衣粉

When you clean out your dryer lint screen, you get a clump of fluff that comes from your clothes and other laundry. But that's not the only place these fibers are going.

當(dāng)你清理干衣機(jī)的棉絮屏幕時(shí)，你的衣服和其他衣物上會(huì)產(chǎn)生一團(tuán)絨毛。但這并不是這些纖維的唯一去處。

Lint from your clothing is likely in your drinking water. (Photo: optimarc/science photo/Shutterstock)

Sometimes they never even make it to the dryer.

有時(shí)他們甚至連烘干機(jī)都進(jìn)不去。

According to new research, 60% of the microplastics in our fresh water come from laundry fibers. When we wash our clothes, towels and sheets, microfibers break off and wash away. They make their way into wastewater treatment facilities and from there, to lakes and other large bodies of water.

根據(jù)最新研究，我們的淡水中60%的微塑料來自洗衣纖維。當(dāng)我們洗衣服、毛巾和床單時(shí)，纖維會(huì)脫落并被沖走。它們進(jìn)入廢水處理設(shè)施，然后從那里進(jìn)入湖泊和其他大型水體。

"I was surprised although, like, you kind of go 'Oh I really shouldn't have been,' " Penn State Behrend chemist Sherri Mason tells Scientific American. "Because we all clean out our lint filters on our dryers. We should be like, 'Oh of course if it's coming off in the dryer that whole process is starting in the washer.'"

賓夕法尼亞州立大學(xué)貝倫德分校的化學(xué)家謝莉·梅森告訴《科學(xué)美國(guó)人》雜志說:“我很驚訝，盡管你可能會(huì)說，‘哦，我真的不應(yīng)該那樣做。’”“因?yàn)槲覀兌紩?huì)清理烘干機(jī)上的棉絮過濾器。我們應(yīng)該說，‘哦，當(dāng)然，如果它在烘干機(jī)里掉了，整個(gè)過程就是在洗衣機(jī)里開始的。’”

Mason analyzed 90 water samples taken from 17 different water treatment facilities across the U.S. In her report, which was published in American Scientist, Mason found that each facility was releasing an average of more than 4 million pieces of microplastic into waterways every day. Of those microplastics, 60% are fibers from clothing and other fabrics. A little over a third are from microbeads — tiny plastic specks used in personal products, that were banned in the U.S. in 2018. The remaining 6% are from films and foams.

梅森在發(fā)表于《美國(guó)科學(xué)家》(American Scientist)雜志上的報(bào)告中分析了來自全美17個(gè)不同水處理設(shè)施的90個(gè)水樣。在這些微塑料中，60%是來自服裝和其他織物的纖維。超過三分之一的塑料微粒來自微珠——一種用于個(gè)人產(chǎn)品的微小塑料微粒，2018年在美國(guó)被禁止使用。剩下的6%來自電影和泡沫。

Natural materials also shed fibers in the washing machine and dryer, but Mason says microbes are able to digest them, but the same isn't true for fibers made from synthetic textiles. Those are non-biodegradable and may linger in the ecosystem for centuries.

天然材料也會(huì)在洗衣機(jī)和烘干機(jī)中脫落纖維，但梅森說，微生物能夠消化它們，但合成紡織品制成的纖維并非如此。它們是不可生物降解的，可能會(huì)在生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中存在幾個(gè)世紀(jì)。

Making their way into fresh water

進(jìn)入淡水

Wastewater treatment plants weren't built to filter out microplastics. (Photo: Montgomery County Planning Commission [CC BY-SA 2.0]/Flickr)

Mason points out that there are 15,000 wastewater treatment facilities in the U.S. They were designed to remove urine, fecal matter and microbes that can negatively impact the environment. But they weren't built to remove plastics. Some studies show that treatment facilities can remove somewhere between 75% and 99% of microplastics. But billions of these microplastics still make their way into our fresh water. A study published earlier this year in called Human Consumption of Microplastics found that Americans eat, drink and inhale between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year.

梅森指出，美國(guó)有1.5萬個(gè)廢水處理設(shè)施，它們的設(shè)計(jì)目的是去除對(duì)環(huán)境有負(fù)面影響的尿液、糞便和微生物。但它們不是用來清除塑料的。一些研究表明，處理設(shè)備可以去除75%到99%的塑料微粒。但是數(shù)十億的塑料微粒仍然會(huì)進(jìn)入我們的淡水中。今年早些時(shí)候發(fā)表在《人類對(duì)微塑料的消費(fèi)》(Human Consumption of microplastic)雜志上的一項(xiàng)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，美國(guó)人每年食用、飲用和吸入的微塑料顆粒在7.4萬至12.1萬粒之間。

Mason says information is power and consumers are taking action. Just like microbeads were banned, people are working to reduce plastic production and consumption. She suggests that each person can reduce plastic use while also lobbying businesses to use alternative materials and reusable containers.

梅森說，信息就是力量，消費(fèi)者正在采取行動(dòng)。就像禁止使用微珠一樣，人們也在努力減少塑料的生產(chǎn)和消費(fèi)。她建議，每個(gè)人都可以減少塑料的使用，同時(shí)游說企業(yè)使用替代材料和可重復(fù)使用的容器。

"The plastic we use ultimately comes back to us in the food we eat and the water we drink," Mason says in her report. "Although this is scary and a bit distressing, it also means we can make positive changes."

梅森在她的報(bào)告中說:“我們使用的塑料最終會(huì)回到我們吃的食物和喝的水中。”“雖然這很可怕，也有點(diǎn)令人沮喪，但這也意味著我們可以做出積極的改變。”