New research ahead of the annual summer getaway has revealed the level of microfibre pollution linked to hotel and cruise ship laundry services.
Past studies have shown that up to 700,000 tiny fibrous particles can be released with a single domestic washing machine cycle. Now a team at the University of Portsmouth have honed in on the tourism and hospitality sectors as major contributors to an invisible air quality crisis.
Using an industrial quality filtration system designed by Cleaner Seas Group, this latest study has identified the potential for hundreds of microfibre threads packed into a space smaller than a one pound coin. Although this is an early result, it points to a potentially huge volume of particles being released in the atmosphere from hotel and cruise ships, which have to process high volumes of laundry on a daily basis.
‘Even from our very first subsample, we were struck by the sheer number of fibres captured,’ Research Associate Felicity Webster, from the Revolution Plastics Institute at the University of Portsmouth. ‘Over the coming months, we will build a clearer picture of the volume and composition of fibres produced by industrial laundry, and how effective filtration can be in stopping them.’
Cruise ships in particular have come under consistent fire in recent years for their environmental footprint. Some 1.7 million British tourists board these vast seafaring vessels each year, many carrying 6,000 passengers and crew, or more. Greywater use alone — which includes laundry and dishwashing — can often exceed 1.2 million litres per day, equivalent to 8,000 bathtubs.
Like hotels, many carriers are now given guests the option to ‘opt-out’ of daily cleaning in a bid to reduce this. However, the Portsmouth analysis points to an additional reason to consider whether it’s really necessary to ask for clean linen every 24 hours. The work also supports a growing body of evidence pointing to microfibres filtration as an absolute necessity in industrial-scale laundry operations.
Regulation is shifting fast, and for cruise and tourism operators, water and wastewater are already critical operational issues,’ said Dave Miller, CEO at Cleaner Seas Group. ‘Microfibre pollution may be invisible, but at scale it cannot be ignored.
‘This is not just about reporting on the problem, it’s about taking action, adopting solutions & measuring the impact,’ he continued. ‘The principle of One Health recognises that the health of our oceans, ecosystems and people are fundamentally interconnected, so must be addressed in unison.’
Image: Celine Lityo / Unsplash
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