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The study found that in high concentrations of fibers, 30% of earthworms died after 72 hours when exposed to polyester, while those exposed to the bio-based fibers experienced much higher mortality of up to 60% in the case of lyocell and 80% for viscose.
A second experiment, using environmentally relevant concentrations of the fibers, indicated that earthworms housed in soils containing viscose fibers exhibited reduced reproduction compared to those exposed to polyester fibers. Earthworms in the soils containing lyocell fibers showed reduced growth and also higher rates of burrowing within the soil compared to exposure to the other types of fiber.
Cotton and wool and bamboo are fine. It’s the “bio plastics” that may be the problem
Edit: raw versions of natural fibers, not the polymerizations.
Most bamboo for textiles is polymerized into viscose, isn’t it? I don’t really have the background to understand exactly what that means, but I was under the impression that it is in essence then rayon made from a different base material. If anyone has an ELI5 answer, I’d appreciate it!
My understanding was the fibers can also be broken down as raw fiber like with paper and drawn into thread as well. I should have stated raw bamboo I’ll edit my post thanks for the correction
Gotcha. I do have a few bamboo derived items, but I believe they are all rayon fabrics. It feels like another thing that has been greenwashed. I’m not sure if harvesting bamboo for stock is better than wood or any other source of cellulose, but it’s discouraging to know that what does break down is just as bad as plastic.
(I got a laugh from your autocorrect before you fixed it too! 😜 )
Hahahahha under where?
But yeah, green washing is a real barrier to having positive change for our world as a whole.
