...and ~35% come from the clothes we wear. No clothes, no cars, sign me up.
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2026
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I mean we could just go to cotton or other organic materials for clothing
Yeah but where's the fun in that?
Everyone thinks nudity is great until they remember how the average person actually looks
Or how much the sun will fuck you up
I've avoided synthetic fabrics for years. People used to think I was just being a woowoo anti-science luddite hippy (this was back before microplastics were a well-known phenomenon). But the fact is I just didn't like the texture of synthetics.
Here are some examples of natural fiber, all of which are lovely:
- Linen - made from flax; lightweight, airy, dries quickly. Great for summer.
- Bamboo - made from bamboo. Feels like a dream. Softer than cotton, lighter than linen, smooth as silk. Sustainable. Not even crazy expensive.
- Micromodal - made from beech trees. Similar to bamboo, but even softer.
- Rayon - made from cellulose. Often used in blends to impart softness and elasticity. Many different kinds. Bamboo and micromodal might technically be kinds of rayon. Also known as viscose.
Non-vegan:
- Sheep's wool - Many varieties. Soft, warm, comfortable even when wet. Great for winter (and hiking socks!). Can be felted due to the properties of the fiber. Comes in a range of qualities, but low quality wool can be itchy.
- Alpaca - Like wool, but softer, sturdier, and warmer. More expensive than wool.
- Kashmere - made from a species of goat fiber. Very very soft. Also expensive.
- Mohair - Different kind of goat wool. Haven't tried this one personally so I can't describe it.
- Angora - Made from rabbit wool! Also haven't tried this one, but supposedly it's very soft.
- Yak - Suuuper warm. Durable. Not as expensive as you might think.
- Silk - Soft, smooth, shiny. Also non-conductive and low-friction! Tends to be expensive, though.
And of course, cotton is versatile and has a wide range of qualities (depends on growing region, thread count, and processing methods. Pima and Egyptian cotton are supposed to be the highest quality, but are also more expensive. Organic cotton is best for the environment).
Here are just some examples of fabrics you can make with cotton:
- Jersey knit
- Terry cloth
- Flannel
- Denim
- Satin
- Muslin
Be sure to check the tags though: many "cotton blends" contain polyester, and often they label something "flannel" when it's just polyester with a plaid print (real flannel is a type of fabric, not the pattern on the cloth. If you can't see the individual threads that make up the pattern, it's not real flannel, just a print).
Final note: most fibers can be either knit or woven, with textures depending accordingly. There are sooo many different kinds of wovens, each with its own unique pattern. Could write a whole textbook just on different kinds of weave.
You missed hemp. I've only the one shirt and haven't worn it much yet but it seems similar to linen. I'll find out as it gets warmer.
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Not even NO clothes and tires, just clothes and tires that aren't made of plastic
It's much easier to switch to clothes not made of plastic then it is to replace what we make tires out of.
That's why I buy clothes made with polyester! No plastic here! In fact I don't think I've ever seen clothes with "plastic" as a material before...
Polyester is plastic.
Or are you being sarcastic? (I hate that this rhymes, it was totally unintentional...)
Iirc viscose, polyether etc., right?
Yeah, it constantly degrades, we wash it directly into the water, and you can't find clothes that are plastics-free.
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I think some viscose can be plant-based. I could be wrong but I think they can make viscose from bamboo.
Id like you to see you try that outside tropical climates.
You wouldn't see much, unfortunately...
Clothes particles go right into the water, not air so much
I think this should be a big deal because we can probably do something about it. microplastics from clothing ought to be controllable by pollution regulations on manufacturers and filters on clothes washers
Or buying more clothes with natural fabrics
I’ve been considering the filter idea because it’s something in my control but it’s unclear if currently available Ones are effective
Edit: checked my water treatment since it’s supposed to be among the most advanced, and nope. It does not measure or treat PFAS or microplastics, and it sells treated sewage as fertilizer.
I see those contaminants are mostly blamed on leachate from landfills but that just narrows to the source where we should be doing something
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That's why I don't use tires. Raw dog the road.
There are some people who do that. Just driving on the steel rims of their cars. But they usually take it a step further, driving on roads that are also made of steel.
Well, no, we don't know that & that's prob false, it's just all plastics.
Tire microplastics just get circulated faster bcs they get grinned to a fine powder as part of their initial use (& that float gets flushed away with water). And the stat is stated for water or air.
Which is a problem, I'm just saying that we are producing a much larger scale of this problem that we can currently detect (and detecting microplastics is still in it's infancy even in lab conditions).
But sooner or later all petroleum based (non-biodegradable) plastics get to be microplastics, we just won't be around to see it.
Microplastics are the sedimentary boundary that will mark the current extinction event in rocks.
You can weigh new tires and compare them to weights of replaced tires. That would give you the low end estimate environmental tire microplastics deposited based on tire sales. I can't imagine its not a massive number.
Yes, it is. But compared to all plastics production it's not a third. Much like clothes aren't a third either.
But they both release microplastics directly into the air & water, so they enter the circulation quicker. The printer that is gonna end on a landfill will be in the balls of creatures millennia from now.
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Citation needed
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969724011422
There's been a wave of similar articles coming out over the last few years. People are finally noticing that this is yet another way cars are killing us.
Source? Heard this before and not surprised, but I'd like something concrete that I can point to.
It seems to be even higher, several studies suggest it's closer to 50%:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c05002
Three different studies predicted emitted tire wear proportions (TWP and TRWP) of total emitted MP [microplastic] loads in the environment (both aquatic and terrestrial) for around 45%. (6,7,52) These calculations were mainly based on global, annual production data and matched the TWP proportions of around 40% in this study. However, since C-PVC was excluded here, a comparison of the percentages is not trivial.
Thanks!
I thought car tyres were made of rubber.
On average ~25% of that rubber is synthetic, i.e. pertroleum/plastic based.
Rubber literally grows on tress, and we're like no, plastic please.
Rubber is less resistant than the plastics mix we use now.
We didn't invest much into developing rubber into a better for for tires. The switch was due to cost & hegemony.
There are actual safety concerns with tires. Modern ones are much, much less prone to blowing out on the highway.
It still can happen though. Ask me how I know. 
According to this page it's about that 25% of the whole tyre, where more than half the tyre is not rubber/synthetic rubber but other stuff.
So there is more synthetic rubber than natural rubber. But the mind-blowing thing for me here is that I kind of assumed the whole tyre was synthetic, but they are only 25% plastic and still are the biggest source of mocroplastic.
But the other stuff is nasty. Total of petrochemicals in a tyre is above 60%. That fabric, carbon black, oils, elastometers, textiles, antioxidantes and additives are all based on petroleum too
And the severity increases with per axle weight
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