If you think the microplastics crisis is just a news headline, think again. Cotton Incorporated and leading researchers have just published a groundbreaking study in Nature Communications, entitled “The global apparel industry: a significant, yet overlooked source of plastic leakage.”

The research reveals that synthetic clothing contributes approximately 7.4 million metric tons of plastic pollution annually. Most of this plastic leakage results from macro plastic waste when synthetic clothes reach the end of their life cycle. This adds to the well-documented issue of microplastic shedding during the washing and wearing of these clothes. To put it into perspective, the weight of that plastic weight every year is ~8,300,000 metric tons, which is equivalent to 820 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower and 23 times the weight of the Empire State Building.

There’s a silver lining in the report. Designing with natural fibers, like cotton, is a key strategy to reduce plastic leakage from the apparel industry that contributes 14 percent of the total plastic leakage into the environment. The good news is that global cotton production contributes less than 1 percent of total plastic pollution, and as a collaborator in the Plastic Leak Project (PLP), Cotton Incorporated helped develop the first-ever Methodological Guidelines, which provide businesses with tools to identify, measure, and address plastic leakage in their value chains. If you can measure it, you can manage it; this report is must-read.

Download this critical report for free to learn what you and your organization can do to reverse the plastic leakage tide and contribute to making our planet safer and healthier.