Microfibers are the major marine pollutant throughout the world estimating 13 million tonnes of coastal synthetic fabric waste entering the ocean each year, out of which 2.5 million tonnes enter through adjoining rivers. It is anticipated that, to date, 1.5 million trillion of microfibers are present in the ocean. An Ocean Wise study estimated that the U.S. and. Canada together release 878 tons of microfibers into the environment through treated wastewater.

Recently, scientists made an amazing discovery. Small strands of plastic from clothing had made it all the way to antarctica. These along with highly processed cotton fibers were floating around in a place where no humans live permanently.

Microfibers are everywhere. They’re in the lint from our dryers, drift off of us as we walk around, and come off our clothing in the wash. We even end up eating them, and can end up eating as much as a credit cards worth of plastic from these clothing fibers as well as other microplastics a week.

That’s a huge amount of plastic, especially when we don’t yet know the health effects from ingesting plastics. What we do know however, is how we can help slow down that ever increasing plastic pollution circling the globe. Here are 3 of our favorite tips.

Buy natural

Most of the plastic fibers come from our clothing. While highly process cotton from jeans has its own problems, plastic is worse for the environment. When ever possible, choosing natural fibers like natural cotton, linin and wool can help reduce plastic fibers when our washing and drying of the clothing inevitably sheds microfibers.

If you do have synthetics in your wardrobe, you can limit how much they shed by washing them less often, only washing full loads, and avoiding the delicate settings.

Use a washing machine filter

One of the biggest culprits in causing microfibers to shed is our washing machines. Every time your washing machine agitates your clothing, microfibers come off and end up going down the drain. You can buy filters that either trap the fibers in the washing machine itself or filter them out as they drain out the pipes. Either one can help reduce microfibers in our waterways.

Hang dry your clothing

Dryers can shed a lot of microfibers into the environment, but there’s an easy way to reduce damage on your clothing and how many microfibers get released all in one go. Hang drying your clothing skips all that heating and tumbling.

Hang drying your clothing is one of the best things you can do to reduce microfibers, second only to being selective about what sort of fibers are in your wardrobe in the first place.

The type of clothing you choose and the way you wash it matters. When you are selective about your clothing, careful about how you wash it, and go the extra mile with your dry you can keep a lot of microfibers out of the environment.

There’s also one more tool in your arsenal to help the environment—use your voice. If you can’t get a particular type of clothing without synthetics, write the company and let them know about your concerns. Tell others about microfiber pollution and how to reduce their impact.

Our voices can reach even farther than our own individual actions can. If you want to do even more to reduce plastic pollution besides taking care with your own environmental stewardship, speaking out is the next step.