I traveled to Antarctica to understand and prevent microfiber pollution. At some point I stood on the Ice, surrounded by penguins and 25-story-high glacier walls, wide-eyed like a gin girl. I was supposed to be collecting samples, but I had a moment.
As a National Geographic Explorer, expedition scientist, founder of the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, and ocean lover, I find myself in beautiful places quite often to research or explore. But here, all of my loves and childhood and career dreams came true at once – big ice and penguins (loves), Antarctica (childhood dream), and data that can lead to solutions to protect this wild and wondrous place (career dream).
I was speechless with awe, thanks to the partnership between Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society, which connects National Geographic Explorers and teams like mine with small ship expeditions to many of the world’s wildest and most remote places. And this was not the only time I experienced a sense of wonder in nature. The same thing happened to me in Hawaii, surrounded by spinner dolphins and the most intense turquoise of waters. Also in Arctic Svalbard with pack ice, polar bears and walruses, and more recently with puffins, mountains and waterfalls in the subarctic regions of the Norwegian fjords, Shetland Islands, Faroe Islands and Iceland.
My team’s goal in all these places: to collect samples of surface water and air to understand microplastic and man-made microfiber pollution – where it is and what exactly “it” is, so it can be prevented.
Mounting evidence suggests that microplastics, particularly microfibers, pose a real threat to creatures throughout the marine food web. Further research has demonstrated the presence of microplastics throughout the human body through ingestion and inhalation. Studies published this year pointed to possible links between the presence of microplastics and serious diseases (R. Marfella et al. 2024; Hu et al. 2024; Pinto-Rodrigues, Science News March 23, 2023).
The need to address microplastic and microfiber pollution is becoming increasingly urgent. Our expedition data is already providing actionable information and highlighting solutions and opportunities for innovation.
Science for solutions
Our team at the Rozalia Project has been looking at the visible side of microplastic pollution since 2010. Microplastics are defined as ranging in size from one micrometer (1/1000 of a millimeter), which is about 1/100 the diameter of a human hair and invisible to the naked eye, to 5mm, or half the width of your little fingernail. We first learned about microplastic pollution in 2014. It screamed at us as the next big problem for our oceans. I mean big in a figurative sense, because microplastic pollution occurs when tiny, too-small-to-see fibers from textiles—clothing, carpets, cleaning rags, fishing gear, etc.—break off and enter the environment.
When we learned about it, it was assumed that the main source of this pollution was clothing – caused by washing machines.
Because little environmental data was available at the time, we assembled a team of researchers and volunteers to collect samples along the Hudson River and examine them for microparticle pollution. The results were unexpected; there was no significant relationship between fiber concentration in surface water and population density (Miller et al., 2017).
This brought us to the question: Could it also come from dryers?
From fibers falling from the sky?
By simply wearing our clothes?
AAre there other significant sources and causes?
We returned to the Hudson River a second time to collect air, soil, water column and surface water samples. The results again confirmed that microparticles, mainly microfibers made from plastic and other materials, are distributed in our air, water and soil, whether people live nearby or not. Our next questions: Have microfibers reached the most remote parts of our world? Can we collect data that inspires action and innovation to solve this problem? And can we involve people in data collection from pole to pole?
Working with National Geographic Explorer and Dr Claire Gwinnett, a forensic fibre expert at Staffordshire University in the UK, we proved that a new, more cost-effective and accessible method of microplastics analysis is possible (Gwinnett and Miller, 2021). Our work in conducting the first-of-its-kind expeditions and developing new forensic-inspired methods for microplastics/microfibre research paved the way for the launch of an ambitious, solutions-focused, community-focused programme.
CSI for the Ocean
CSI for the Ocean is a global, citizen-led microplastic mapping and monitoring program. It is a hybrid science, awareness and solution development program that addresses microplastic and microfiber pollution by collecting the data we need to drive large-scale policy and innovation that gets to the root of the problem. We call it CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) as a nod to the fact that the methods we use were inspired by forensics and that marine pollution, or any pollution, is a crime both literally and figuratively. The program is supported in part by the National Geographic Society, as well as Lindblad Expeditions and the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, with technical support from the forensic science departments of Staffordshire and Northumbria Universities, both in the UK.
As part of this program, I have been to Hawaii, the Arctic, the sub-Arctic, and the Southern Ocean to collect data in some of the most remote and seemingly pristine places on earth. And in all of these regions, there is microplastic pollution, particularly microfiber pollution.
Data from our expeditions show the relationship between population, currents and remote locations. In particular, our findings from the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic expedition to Arctic Svalbard and the west coast of Norway have revealed hotspots of micropollution in surface waters on Svalbard. Given a nearly nonexistent human population, this didn’t make sense until we overlaid the currents and realized that anyone on the east coast of the US and the British Isles could be contributing to the plastic pollution that ends up with Svalbard’s polar bears and walruses (Miller, StoryMap, 2024).
The properties of the fibres we find through CSI for the Ocean are largely consistent with the fibres used to make clothing textiles. In the South Orkney Islands, a place rarely visited by ships, microfibres were found in the water next to a colony of Adelie penguins (Miller, StoryMap, 2024). In places without people, prevention must begin thousands of kilometers away.
Human-scale solutions for you
While it may seem overwhelming, microfiber pollution is a problem that has both ready-to-use solutions for individuals and families, as well as opportunities for teams and companies to participate in and support innovation.
Let’s start with the simplest and free solutions right in your own laundry room: wash less often, remove stains, wash ¾ to full loads, use cold water settings, and air dry when possible (this also reduces water and energy consumption).
Next level solutions include: wear low-pilling clothes when doing outdoor activities and, when possible, choose higher quality clothing that will last longer and be economical! New clothes shed a lot more in the first few washes, which is not a problem with used clothes.
For more information on how to avoid microfiber pollution at home, see How to Reduce Microfiber Pollution from Your Laundry on Earth911. Cora Ball – a laundry ball invented by our team that prevents microfibers. Learn more about how we’ve used biomimicry (which takes inspiration directly from nature) to protect our oceans and our clothes on Earth. Ocean Protectors Blog.
Solutions must also come from industries and policies upstream of consumers. Opportunities for innovation include creating stronger textiles that are less likely to break down, and creating organically produced and biosafe textiles so fewer harmful substances are released into the environment. Manufacturing washers and dryers with built-in filters, developing settings that reduce lint, and developing machines that wash more gently will also have a significant impact.
On the policy side, we can also go a long way to preventing this problem and protecting our precious public waters by introducing regulations to limit emissions from washing machines and dryers, establishing testing standards for emissions resistance, and labeling laws that give consumers the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.
Voices and actions for change
We encourage everyone to adopt the strategies above, we call on engineers and problem solvers to seize the opportunities for innovation, and we call on everyone to raise awareness of the problem of microfiber pollution, especially from our clothing, and to take actions consistent with this message.
One of my favorite concepts is that “many small things make a big difference.” Many tiny, microscopic plastic and fiber particles pose a big problem for the ocean, its creatures, and increasingly, for humans themselves. However, many small efforts and solutions happening simultaneously can have a big impact on protecting our one, big, shared ocean and everyone who depends on it – and that’s all of us.
My team’s expeditions aren’t over yet, and CSI for the Ocean is just getting started! Follow me at @rachaelzoemiller (primarily on Instagram) to learn through exploration and the love of life in, on, and near the water, and at @rozaliaproject, @thecoraball, @lindbladexp, and @insidenatgeo for information, inspiration, stories, and action from around the world!
About the author
Rachael Zoe Miller is a National Geographic Explorer, expedition scientist, and inventor committed to ocean conservation. She is the founder of the Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, a nonprofit organization that addresses marine debris through cleanup, education, innovation, and solutions-based research, with its research vessel based off the coast of Maine. She is the co-inventor of the Cora Ball, a microfiber-preventing laundry ball, has published several articles on marine debris in peer-reviewed journals, and speaks to audiences around the world.
