Name: June Binnard

Social Justice Group: Environment: Microplastics

Date of Fieldwork: January 12, 2023

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Plastic Pollution Coalition

Type of Fieldwork: Webinar

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?[:: :

Me and two other members of my group joined a Plastic Pollution Coalition webinar on January 12, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. The subject was how a significant and largely invisible plastic pollution problem is being caused by the nature of synthetic textiles. Meli Hinostroza, Dr. Andrej Kran, and Dr. Judith Weis spoke as the panelists, while Madeleine MacGillivray moderated the discussion. They started out by asking us some questions about where our clothes came from, and then the speakers were introduced and each of them spoke about a different part of the problem.

I learned about how plastic, including polyester, acrylic, nylon, spandex, and other materials, is included in more than 60% of the apparel sold worldwide. Microfibers are small plastic particles that come off of synthetic clothing when it is regularly washed and used. Over 9 million microfibers can be released into our rivers with just one load of laundry. Since many microfibers are too small to pass through wastewater treatment plants’ filters, they eventually wind up in our oceans. Some solutions to microfibers include changing laundry filters, and buying clothes made of cotton and other natural materials instead of clothing made of plastic.