Microplastics of Textile Origin: The TextileMission project

Microplastics (plastic particles <5mm) are a subject of intense research, due to the enormous release of plastics to the environment and the arising environmental concerns. Polyester fibres originating from textiles have been indicated as an important source of microplastics in the environment. Globally, more than 55 million tons of polyester fibres are produced annually. Mechanical and chemical stress that fabric undergoe during domestic washing cause fibre shedding - as a result, synthetic MPs are introduced into wastewater. The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) estimates that 80 to 400 t of microplastic particles are released from textiles in Germany.

The project "TextileMission - Retention of Polyester Particles in the Sewage Treatment Plant and Environmental Stability of new Materials" (09/2017 - 03/2021) was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), within the framework program “Plastic in the Environment: Sources, Sinks and Solutions”. The project brought together academia, textile manufacturers and environmental management agencies in order to gain a better understanding of release and environmental fate of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) based MPs from textiles, and to derive approaches to reduce their emission into the environment.

At the Institute of Water Chemistry, we covered the following research tasks:

• Development of a filtration cascade which allows for the separation of fibres from water and fractionation of the fibres according to their sizes. 
• Establishment of a method for (semi) automatic evaluation of number and size of PET fibres via digital image processing of fluorescently labelled fibres.
• Determination of the retention of different MPs size fractions within different stages of a Wastewater Treatment Plant (i.e sedimentation, nitrification, denitrification, sand filters, active carbon filters) on laboratory scale.
• Analysis and assessment of polyester material flows and MPs emissions to the environment.
• (Bio)degradability assessment of novel biopolymer-based materials under realistic environmental conditions.
• Development of designing criteria for the development of ʺenvironmental friendlyʺ materials.

Data on microplastics shedding from different textiles and retention in various stages of wastewater treatment were collected in order to achieve an improved understanding of the material flows and fate of textile microplastics. These data were used to develop a strategy for minimising the input of microplastics of textile origin into the environment.

Please read more in our  brochure presenting the final outcome of the project, as well as in our publications:

Zhang Y.-Q., Lykaki M., Markiewicz M., Alrajoula M. T., Kraas C., Stolte S. (2022) Environmental contamination by microplastics originating from textiles: emission, transport, fate and toxicity. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 430, 128453.

Zhang Y.-Q., Lykaki M., Alrajoula M. T., Markiewicz M., Kraas C., Kolbe S., Klinkhammer K., Rabe M., Klauer R., Bendt E. and Stolte S. (2021) Microplastics from textile origin – emission and reduction measures. Green Chemistry, 23, 5247-5271.

Lykaki M., Zhang Y.-Q., Markiewicz M., Brandt S., Kolbe S., Schrick J., Rabe M. and Stolte S. (2021) The influence of textile finishing agents on the biodegradability of shed fibres. Green Chemistry, 23, 5212-5221.

Contact: Prof. Stefan Stolte