From Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Data on how much plastic is recycled in the US. Data from US EPA.
What are microplastics? From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Microplastics Fact Sheet
10 Facts You NEED to Know about Microplastics
What is sustainability in the fashion industry?
Wikipedia - Environmental Impact of Fashion
Why we need to phase plastic out of fashion
Plastic pollution has surged with the rise of plastic fast fashion—bringing with it devastating impacts on our health and the environment when produced, used, and discarded. From the Plastic Pollution Coalition.
Eighty-six percent of litter collected on Great Lakes beaches is composed either partially or fully of plastic, according to a 2024 report released by the Alliance for the Great Lakes. The report is based on 20 years of data collected from more than 14,000 Adopt-a-Beach cleanups on all five Great Lakes. The new analysis details the most common types of plastic items found on Great Lakes shorelines and outlines potential solutions to reduce plastic pollution. In the environment, plastics tend not to degrade. Instead, plastics break down into microplastic particles that make their way into the Great Lakes, a source of drinking water for 40 million people.
News article - Full report
Exploring the potential for adopting alternative materials to reduce marine plastic litter
The report by UN Environment assesses the potential of replacing certain conventional plastics applications with alternative materials, such as fungus foam to pineapple pleather.
News alert - Full report
Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee Report on Microfiber Pollution
The NOAA Marine Debris Program and Environmental Protection Agency’s Trash Free Waters Program, on behalf of the Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee's Interagency Marine Debris Coordinating Committee Report on Microfiber Pollution which provides an overview of microfiber pollution, including a proposed definition of a microfiber, an assessment of the problem, and recommendations for measuring and reducing microfiber pollution.
News alert - Full report
Alpena student aims to tackle textile waste, plastic pollution
WCMU
News article
Fashion's tiny secret
UN Environment Program
News article
Microplastics, Fast Fashion and Saving the Bees: EHS Today's Sustainability News
EHS Today
News article
These facts show how unsustainable the fashion industry is
From the World Economic Forum
News article
FISH LEATHER
Fish Leather Workshop
Twenty companies pledge to use all parts of Great Lakes fish by 2025
Fish-leather purses and wallets may make their way into Great Lakes fashion with an initiative to use 100 percent of commercially caught fish by 2025. News article
Fashion and Sustainability
Listen to the podcast
River Blue (full length film - $2.99 to stream) - Following international river conservationist, Mark Angelo, RIVERBLUE spans the globe to infiltrate one of the world’s most pollutive industries, fashion. Narrated by clean water supporter Jason Priestley, this groundbreaking documentary examines the destruction of our rivers, its effect on humanity, and the solutions that inspire hope for a sustainable future.
More about the film
True Cost (full length film) - The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story of the fashion industry and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing?
More about the film
What are microplastics?
Microplastics are small plastic pieces less than five millimeters long which can be harmful to our ocean and aquatic life. From NOAA. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/microplastics.html
Fashion's toxic threads - The Economist
A single clothes wash can release up to 700,000 microplastic fibres, many of which end up in the ocean. Now some pioneering fashion brands are putting the materials they use under the microscope.
How Fast Fashion & (Recycled) Polyester Create The Microplastics In Our Blood - AYA
We are covered in petroleum. Hydrocarbons create the plastics (polyester, nylon, elastane, acrylic, etc) that seep into our everyday lives, our clothes, and our bodies. Polyester has led the way for fast fashion to boom, leaving a trail of microplastics in nature and in us. With the help of Professor Dick Vethaak, we explain how polyester clothing helps create the microplastics found in our bloodstream.
How microplastics affect your health - UN Environment Programme
51 Trillion particles of microplastics float in our oceans. Yet there is very little science of how this affects our health. This video shows why we should gain back control over plastic in our lives.
The Story of Microfibers - The Story of Stuff
Most of us wear synthetic fabrics like polyester every day. Our dress shirts, yoga pants, fleeces, and even underwear are all increasingly made of synthetic materials -- plastic, in fact. But these synthetic fabrics, from which 60% of all clothing on earth is made, have a big hidden problem: when they’re washed, they release tiny plastic bits -- called microfibers -- that flow down our drains, through water treatment plants, and out into our rivers, lakes and oceans by the billions.
The Next Black
'The Next Black' is a documentary film that explores the future of clothing. Watch as we meet with some of the most innovative companies on the planet to get their opinion on clothing and its future, including: heroes of sustainability, Patagonia; tech-clothing giants, Studio XO; sportswear icon, adidas; and Biocouture, a consultancy exploring living organisms to grow clothing and accessories.