Microplastics: yet another source of plastic pollution in California. 4,000 metric tons of microfibers (13.3 quadrillion fibers) from our clothes washing machines find their way into California’s natural systems every year. The toxic chemicals they carry from treatments used in clothing production are released into the environment along with them. These microplastics threaten the entire marine ecosystem, agriculture, and citizens. 

Microplastics are found in all aspects of our lives — our state beaches, rivers, bays, ocean waters, air, and soil. Through these contaminated environments, we have absorbed them. Found in our bodies and bloodstreams, microfibers threaten our health.

A whopping 35% of all ocean microplastic pollution comes from washing synthetic clothing. With a single laundry load, hundreds of thousands of microfibers are released. Many of these damaging microfibers escape capture in wastewater plants and infiltrate the ocean, damaging aquatic species and affecting the entire food chain from the bottom to the top including ourselves. The microfibers caught in the wastewater treatment plants are transferred as “biosolids” to agricultural lands for use as fertilizer, contaminating soils and transferred to the plants we eat.

To lessen the threat of microplastics harming our lives more than they already do in our home state, California’s Microfiltration Bill, A.B. 1628, needs to be signed into law. California is a pioneer in the United States in protecting ocean and human health. It’s important that we continue to act in order to reduce the effects of plastic pollution. 

Send Governor Newsom a message asking that he protect Californians, and set a precedent for the rest of the country to follow.