Small fibres, big legacies?
Our clothes release very small plastic fibres (microfibres) during washing, which break down extremely slowly in the environment. We do not know what happens if they continue to accumulate over a very long time in our rivers. In this project, researchers will use a unique dataset on microfibre release from textiles collected by citizen scientists, to predict current and future emissions of microfibres into Dutch rivers. Combining models and experiments, they will investigate how many microfibres are needed to disrupt natural sediment processes. Interactive maps will visualise microfibre accumulation in the Netherlands under different scenarios.

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