Since 1973, every year experienced sailors on board cutting edge sailboats participate in a sailing race around the world in The Ocean Race. But apart from being a sports event, The Ocean Race provides valuable insight into the state of our oceans, gathering water samples on their way. In the 2022-23 edition, every sample gathered during the 60,000km long race contained microplastics, with high concentrations found in some of the most remote parts of the planet, several thousand kilometres from land.
Scientists from the National Oceanography Centre (UK) and University of Rhode Island (USA) analyzed the samples and determined that there were 4,789 pieces of microplastics per cubic metre of water on average. And most surprising, 71% of the microplastics in the samples were microfibers, mainly polyester, which is released into the environment from washing machines (through wastewater), dryers (into the air), direct shedding from clothing, degradation of textiles littered in the environment and from discarded fishing gear.
Europe is a hot spot
But it's not just the high concentrations and the strucutre of the samples that were surprising (even more than we previously thought), but also the locations of mos affected areas. The greatest concentration (26,334) was found close to South Africa, followed by the edge of the English Channel close to Brest, France (17,184), then another point close to South Africa (14,976) followed by the Balearic Sea (14,970) and in the North Sea offshore Denmark (14,457). Microplastics captured ranged from 0.03 millimetres to 4.6 millimetres in size.
Read the detailed article on THE OCEAN RACE website.
Yes, there is a way to prevent microfibers in the oceans
OK, it's practically impossible for an individual to have an impact on the fishing indutry. But we can all make a difference at home! By filtering wastewater from washing machines, we can reduce microfiber pollution by 98%. PlanetCare 2.0 is an add-on filter for your washing machine that
English 
German