Posted July 12, 2018

Springtime was a blur to me, and not because of the pollen spores that seemed to all find their way into my nostrils and eyeballs – where they were met by an ample sprinkling of cotton dust, as sweet a smell as honeysuckle to this Southerner who knows all about the mill whistle and a smoke-stacked village.

Textile event after mill tour after textile event after mill tour left my head spinning, and me pining for summertime, when I could clear my head and take in the sunshine, nothing short of glistening gold poured over the flora and fauna. And those long days that stretch into each other and bring promise for continued prosperity in our amazing industry are finally here – but I would like to break out the Ol’ Digital Notebook and disseminate some information from my springtime travels.

One of my journeys through Textile Country took me to the Queen City of Charlotte, N.C., where I covered the Synthetic Yarn and Fabric Association’s (SYFA’s) annual Spring Conference. SYFA, a stalwart association in our industry, organized two dynamic days of diverse presentations from eclectic experts, as per usual.

Among several interesting speakers was Alasdair Carmichael, who gave one of the most eye-opening presentations on a hot topic: fibers and the marine debris challenge. That’s an issue of which I’ve heard several discussions over the past year. While pollen and cotton dust can be microscopic, so can another particle – microfibers.

Carmichael has addressed this group and served on the SYFA board for many years. But he was in a new role and covered a different issue at this event. He recently retired from PCI Wood Mackenzie but maintains his consulting business, Carmichael International. Typically, twice a year he provides a deep-dive update on the world fiber business, but this go ’round, he explored a matter that is giving the industry a bad name these days.

“This (microfibers) really is a growing issue that we as an industry need to look at and do something about,” he said.

He showed an image of the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch,” a floating mass of about 79,000 metric tons of plastic that is twice the size of Texas, he said. It is floating in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. The bulk of the pile is made up of larger objects, while only 8 percent of the mass is microplastics, or pieces smaller than 5 millimeters in size.

“We’ve all seen these horrendous pictures,” Carmichael said. “You think of the hard plastics, but we (the fibers sector) have been brought into the debate.”

He explained that there are conflicting definitions of microfibers that are causing confusion. Microfibers (also called microplastic fibers) are a subset of microplastics and are typically fractions of a millimeter in diameter and are less than 5 millimeters long, he said. A source of microfibers is suspected to be textile-based products – articles of clothing and household textiles, particularly those that require regular laundering.

Present data suggests that microfibers can readily enter waterways when textiles are washed, as both home laundering machines as well as existing municipal wastewater treatment systems currently have limitations in filtering out this very small size of particle, he added, citing an Outdoor Industry Association Priority Issues Brief.

The “traditional” definition of microfibers, he said, is: An ultrafine fiber of less than 1 denier per filament. (Staple is anything less than 1 denier.) But public perception is that textiles such as blankets, towels, clothes, etc. are creating pollution, Carmichael said.

“We like to think that microfibers is a positive term, as least in the way we look at it,” he said. “But ‘microfiber’ is now becoming the worst word out there. The word association you get by promoting microfiber is not going to be positive these days.”

The SYFA, he added, has grown as an organization that has embraced sustainability: “We had a conference here in 2007 called ‘Sustainable Is Attainable,’ with about 300 people in this room. The last six to eight months, there has been a lot of activity (in the area of fiber waste), and we are not involved (in addressing this issue). The saying is, ‘if you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.’ We need to be involved as an industry!”

He showed a video of the microfibers/marine waste, commenting, “If you Google ‘polyester microfibers,’ this kind of stuff comes up,” with headlines such as “How your clothes are poisoning our oceans and food supply.”

The principle sources of microplastics/microfibers, Carmichael said, are textiles (35 percent), tire dust (28 percent) and city dust (24 percent). “Either way, we’re looking at textiles as being a big factor,” he said.

To address the growing threat of microfibers in the environment, Ocean Conservancy and UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management recently held a Microfiber Leadership Summit in California. The purpose was to discuss the current state of knowledge on microfiber pollution, develop a roadmap to guide future research and innovation and forge relationships to pursue future collaborations and implement the roadmap, he added.

“The fiber and textile industry was not there and we need to get there,” said Carmichael, who did point out that the AATCC and ASTM International are currently developing wet and dry shed testing standards, respectively, with input from some summit participants and members of industry. “We need to get involved at a much higher, industry-involved level.”

The ubiquity of microfibers in the environment and in seafood has caught the attention of scientists, policymakers, industry and the public, he said. At the summit, a team of industry representatives, scientists and NGOs saw an opportunity to lead and work to close knowledge gaps and explore ways to mitigate sources of microfiber emissions and their potentially negative effects on humans, animals and the environment, he noted.

Carmichael went on to cite a number of studies and headlines that paint an unfavorable picture of fiber waste and its impact. For instance, each cycle of a washing machine could release more than 700,000 microscopic plastic fibers into the environment, according to a study, he said. And another study found that a fleece jacket can shed as many as 250,000 fibers per wash. Also, tests show billions of people globally are drinking water contaminated by plastic particles, with 83 percent of samples found to be polluted. The average number of fibers found in each 500ml drinking water sample ranged from 4.8 in the U.S. to 1.9 in Europe, he noted.

Many different groups are taking the lead on this issue, but a lot of questionable information is being passed around with very little solid research, he said in conclusion.

“The synthetic fiber industry is not at the table for these meetings, so is not influencing the debate,” he said. “The CIRFS (European Man-Made Fibres Association) is very engaged in the debate, but we are not (in the U.S.) – but we need to be. Cotton is looking for any weakness in the synthetic story and they will put a lot of support behind these issues.”

Other speakers

Other presenters included:

• Dr. John Connaughton, Barings Professor of Financial Economics at UNC-Charlotte, who presented an engaging overview of the economy;
   

• Dr. Stephanie T. Sullivan, senior site process engineer, and Ninabeth Sowell, new business development manager, both of DSM Dyneema, who covered the “Next Generation of Low-Weight, High-Performance Solutions with Dyneema;”
   

• Stacey Henegar, general manager – Technical, Goulston Technologies, Inc., who went over “Improving Scourability of Fiber Lubricants From Elastomeric Blends;”
   

• Andrea Ferris, co-founder of Silicon Valley-based Intrinsic Textiles Group, who discussed the company’s CiClo sustainable textile technology;
   

• Brad Kalil, director of Market Research and Statistics INDA: Association of the Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, who provided an update on the nonwovens market;
   

• Teruki Ikeda, senior R&D manager, Shin-Etsu Silicones of America, Inc., who presented “Coating Developments and Technologies for Textiles;”
   

• Dr. Suraj Sharma, Innovative Materials Research Team, Dept. of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors, College of Family and Consumer Services. University of Georgia, who discussed “Wearable Piezoelectric Nanogenerator for Energy Harvesting;”
   

• Jim Hemsley, IS manager, Techmer PM, who presented a cyber security review; and
   

• Steve Warner, publisher of the Beaverlake Report, who offered an in-depth look at the state of the technical textiles industry.

SYFA Spring Conference review

What's giving fibers and textiles a bad name now?