It’s probably that the fibers aren’t as long or that they aren’t spun as well,” Diamond said. Microfibers – tiny threads shed from fabric – have been found in abundance on shorelines where waste water is released. It seems we are slowly, and literally, eating the shirts off our backs. One frightening conclusion is that these microfibers—a subcategory of microplastics—are even more pervasive in the environment than microbeads, tiny plastic beads common in beauty products that were recently banned in the United States. In 2011, Browne, now a senior research associate at the University of New South Wales in Australia, published a paper in the journal Environmental Science and Technology that concluded microfibers from synthetic fabrics like nylon and acrylic make up 85 percent of human-made debris across the world’s shorelines. Also, each fleece jacket released seven times more fibers when washed in a top-load washing machine versus a front-load. Then, in an ironic twist, Patagonia itself validated Browne’s work when a study it funded that was conducted by researchers at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara was released in June. “These microfibers then travel to your local wastewater treatment plant, where up to 40% of them enter rivers, lakes and oceans,” according to findings published on the researchers’ website. Synthetic fleece jackets release an average of 1.7 grams of microfibers with every wash. The group ran both name-brand and off-brand polyester fleece jackets through the wash without detergent to get a handle on the mass of microfibers shed each time. Curiously, the Patagonia study found that top-loading washing machines had more than five times the microfiber shedding than front-loading machine in their trials. For Plastic Soup’s Westerbos, the reluctance of the industries that operate in that crucial place between the consumer and the world’s waterways can no longer be tolerated. While Patagonia and other outdoor companies, like Polartec, use recycled plastic bottles as a way to conserve and reduce waste, this latest research indicates that the plastic might ultimately end up in the oceans anyway – and in a form that’s even more likely to cause problems. However, as all this research is making clear, this good-intentioned strategy may actually be worse for the environment than leaving those plastic bottles intact. Knowing that aquatic wildlife eat these microfibers is one thing; but seeing the impact on an individual fish brings this crisis to life—or rather, death. Though she had been studying aquatic pollution around the Great Lakes for several years, Mason, who works for the State University of New York Fredonia, had never seen anything like it.  New studies show that alarming numbers of tiny fibers from synthetic fabrics are making their way from your washing machine into aquatic animals 
 
 How your clothes are poisoning our oceans and food supply 
 
 How your clothes are poisoning our oceans and food supply 
 
 The first time professor Sherri Mason cut open a Great Lakes fish, she was alarmed at what she found. Mason said that looking through a microscope, they seemed to be “weaving themselves into the gastrointestinal tract.” 
 
 This problem is pervasive and not going away anytime soon. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Abigail Barrows, principal investigator of the Global Microplastics Initiative, says that microfibers are a bigger problem than most realize Photograph: Veronica Young 
 
 Scary science 
 
 While the UCSB study is sure to make waves, researchers are consistently finding more and more evidence that microfibers are in many marine environments and in large quantities. After processing nearly 2,000 aquatic samples covering both freshwater and marine ecosystems, she came to a similar grim conclusion: Microfibers represent about 90 percent of the debris found in aquatic environments. A study out of the University of Exeter, in which crabs were given food contaminated with microfibers, found that they altered animals’ behavior. “This is not just about aquatic animals; it is a significant concern to human health as well.” 
 
 Gregg Treinish, founder and executive director of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, which oversees Barrows' microfiber research, said because of these studies, he has eliminated aquatic animals from his diet. I don’t want to have eaten fish for 50 years and then say, ‘Oh, whoops’ 
 
 In an alarming study released Monday, researchers at the University of California at Santa Barbara found that, on average, synthetic fleece jackets release 1.7 grams of microfibers each wash. Treinish rigged his washing machine with a filter designed for septic systems, hoping to catch some microfibers before they escape into the waterways. As the UCSB researchers write, “Due to the high capital costs of WWTPs, upgrading WWTPs is not a feasible solution to microfiber pollution in the short term.” 
 
 Another solution would be to modify washing machines. As Jill Notini, vice president of communications and marketing for the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers, told the Guardian: “How do you possibly retrofit all of the units that are in the market and then add a filter in and talk to consumers and say, ‘Here is a new thing that you’re going to have to do with your clothes washer?’” 
 
 The best solution, then, is to attack the problem on the production side (i.e., make more sustainable textiles that don’t shed microfibers) and the consumer side (i.e., stop buying synthetic garments), simultaneously.
– Synthetic fleece is great—until you consider the fact that every time it's washed, it releases thousands of microfibers into the environment. Microscopic plastic fibers may now be one of the most common types of plastic debris found in samples from the environment, including animals, ecologist and evolutionary biologist Chelsea Rochman tells NPR, and that means we humans are likely eating the synthetic fibers without realizing it. Previous studies have found microfibers in table salt and fish; last year, Alternet explained that marine life is particularly prone to ingesting microfibers because they go from the washing machine through the sewage system and into various waterways. Microfibers are, it turns out, more pervasive in the environment than even microbeads—which were banned in the US in 2015 over similar problems. In 2011, one ecologist found that 85% of human debris on shorelines around the world is synthetic microfiber. Now, outdoor outfitting company Patagonia—which often uses microfiber in its products—is also looking into the problem, and has found that a polyester fleece jacket shed as many as 2 grams of microfibers (that's an amount weighing more than a paperclip) each time it's washed, and even more when washed in a top-loader. The next question: Are these microfibers harmful to wildlife and humans? The answer is not yet clear, but one conservationist says he's not waiting to find out; he recommends washing your microfleece as little as possible. The Guardian reported last year that there are also a few ideas floating around for products that would trap microfibers in the washing machine rather than allowing them down the drain. (This microfiber fabric generates its own electricity.)