This is scientific American 60 Second Science. I'm a lien organbron.

Plastic waste breaks down into ever smaller pieces, becoming tiny enough to waft in the air and flow in the water.

A study published in June found that a person on average inhales or swallows at least 74,000 microscopic particles of plastic each year. And there are multitudes of miniscule

plastic beads and fibers in the environment. So what's the most common type of

microplastic? Recent research finds that in freshwater at least it's tiny pieces of artificial fibers from laundry

lint.

We were interested in the microbeeds and we found them but we found microfibers much more prominently.

So 60% of the microplastics that we obtained were actually these micro fibers.

Sherry Mason is a chemist specializing in plastic pollution in freshwater systems at Penn State Barren.

I was surprised, although like you kind of go,

oh, I really shouldn't have been because we all clean out our lint

filters on our dryers, you know, so we should be like, oh of course, if it's coming

off in the dryer, the whole process is starting in the washer.

Synthetic textiles shed non-biodegradable fibers which enter wastewater and travel beyond.

Mason's report is in the publication American scientist.

There are microplastics in the air and as you have precipitation events they come raining down or as basically

air comes in contact with water, you know, these microplastics are going to end up in the water that way.

Even in the most isolated corners of the world,

Mason notes that natural materials also shed fibers in the wash,

but microbes know how to digest them.

Not so for microplastic fibers.

They may take centuries to degrade, so they accumulate.

...