[nomansland]

There exist several filters intended to be fitted to the washing machine to trap the microfiber shedding. https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/reduce-laundry-micro... this had several products to address the situation - I don't think solutions like this should be categorized as "lame", that's incredibly lazy and negative, and I think encourages people to have the "fuck it, let's dance in the flames of the world burning" attitude. Washing less often and at lower temps will also decrease the shedding. I think we need to take a 'harm reduction' approach, filter the micro plastics at sources, reserve synthetic clothes for when they are required, address the fast fashion waste problem. It's not just micro plastics, but when clothes are only worn for a season, there's a ton of waste and environmental impact.

The author is correct on use cases, for a lot of applications, synthetic fibers are the only viable answer. As a drysuit diver with a wool allergy, I cannot avoid synthetic fibers in my undergarments (warm clothes you wear under the drysuit designed to still insulate you long enough to safely exit your dive even if the drysuit fails and is flooded). I have thought about the irony of this as I do cleanup dives to remove larger plastic pieces from the ocean.