Perfectly Imperfect
Playing a Part in Degrading our Home
I pollute.
Above is a two-word sentence that I ran from for an embarrassingly long amount of time. As an environmentalist, it is difficult to accept the fact that I, too, leave the natural world worse off than I find it. It is true that corporations are responsible for the majority of anthropogenic pollution, but such a statement allows individuals to disassociate from the negative effects that their actions have on the planet. Earlier this year, I realized that I blamed environmental degradation on large companies to relieve myself of the guilt I felt for not living waste-free.
This emotional tie between myself and the natural environment comes from my childhood in the Pacific Northwest. My elementary school had solar panels and wind turbines on its roof, held annual Earth Day celebrations, and taught its students how to sort and responsibly dispose of their trash. Today, I am studying environmental engineering at The University of Texas at Austin in hopes of mitigating the consequences of climate change. Clearly, my appreciation for the Earth runs deep. So, I thought, how could a tree-hugger like me be unknowingly polluting the places I hold so dearly? The answer to that question lies in my laundry basket.
Doing one load of laundry can release 700,000 microscopic-sized pieces of plastic, sending them down the drain to pollute our municipal water supplies and oceans (Tobin 11). Laundry rooms are Americans’ most direct pipeline (literally) to microfiber pollution, and the majority of us don’t even know it. To explore the extent of this issue, I interviewed three individuals: an undeclared student, a second-year environmental science major, and a professor of environmental engineering. My goals were to see how their varying levels of environmental-issue-related experience translated to their working knowledge of microfiber pollution and to find out which methods are the best for educating a general audience on technical topics.
Unsurprisingly, the two women who focus on environmental studies know more about microplastics and the effects of water pollution than the student who is largely disconnected from environmentalism. However, none of my interviewees purchase, wear, or launder their clothes to purposefully decrease the amount of microfibers shed. I also spent time in my dormitory’s laundry room to observe the clothes-washing habits of my peers. 24 unique people used the facilities over two hours on a Monday morning. Each person washed one or two loads of clothes at a time, and no one used a microfiber-catching device.
In conducting this fieldwork, I realized the hypocrisy in my own inaction. I did laundry that morning, too, without a microfiber-catching nanoball. I thrift shop, but not out of concern for contributing to the presence of microfibers in my wastewater. I try to avoid fast fashion, but Nike is still my favorite clothing company. Why did I expect people who have looked at microfiber pollution less intensely than I have to act differently?
Sensitizing and Animating to Make a Change
In each of my interviews, I asked for ideas on the most effective way to educate the public on microfiber pollution. The over-arching theme? People need to see it to believe it, myself included. In other words, microfibers, nearly invisible villains, must become sense-able for general audiences.
Latour discusses the importance of turning issues into matters of concern when attempting to sensitize a group of people (Latour 319). Researchers should discuss the effects of microfiber pollution and make their explanations clear. My environmental engineering professor has experience in translating scientific ideas into digestible information, and she suggested a hands-on campaign. To leave a lasting impact, scientists should use physical demonstrations showing how microfibers shed, travel, and cause harm. The undeclared student I talked to is an example of someone who would benefit from such a demonstrative outreach program.
Seeing is believing, but how do we make people resonate emotionally with microfiber pollution? In Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer says, “Our [English] grammar boxes us in by the choice of reducing a nonhuman being to an it, or it must be gendered, inappropriately, as a he or a she. Where are our words for the simple existence of another living being?” (Wall Kimmerer 56). Instead of declaring that something is hurt from pollution, state that someone is sick. Integrating elements of anthropomorphism into a microfiber awareness campaign could help people recognize that we are hurting ecosystems with seemingly innocuous actions, like doing laundry.
Recently, fast fashion has been under heavy fire, and I wanted to learn why its practices are so harmful. Before finding out which companies are some of the worst offenders, I thought of myself as a relatively sustainable shopper. I keep and wear the same clothes for years, purchase items secondhand, and largely avoid the obvious “no-no” stores: Forever 21, H&M, and cheap online boutiques like Fashion Nova. However, my heart dropped when I looked at the Google search results for “biggest fast fashion brands” for the first time. That was the start of my internal journey to remembering my role in anthropogenic pollution and accepting the unrealistic expectations of a net-zero lifestyle.
Interviewing other people and places about microfiber pollution helped me put this realization into perspective. I became more rhetorical by increasing my awareness about the different scopes of other peoples’ knowledge. I also got better at identifying problems and generating questions which made me more environmental — in an unexpected way. Prior to conducting fieldwork, I restricted the idea of becoming environmental to simply learning more about issues that have natural components, like climate change or endangered species. For me, it turned out to be thinking critically about the space I occupy, whether physically or metaphorically, and attuning myself to said areas.
I set out to expose the gaps in understanding of an imminent environmental threat, but I ended up rethinking the part that my actions play in it. I pollute, and I want to ensure a clean, safe future, but I don’t believe that it should have such an emotional toll on me. I cannot carry the weight of global environmentalism on my nineteen-year-old shoulders. So, we all have a role in protecting the planet. I’ll start working on mine…
…as soon as you accept yours.
References
Bruno Latour. “Sensitizing.” Bruno Latour, 2015, www.bruno-latour.fr/node/691.html.
“Learning the Grammar of Animacy.” Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer, Tantor Media, Inc., 2016, pp. 48–59.
Tobin, Catie. “How Plastic Pollution Is Being Woven into Fast Fashion Culture.” New Security Beat, Environmental Change and Security Program Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 30 July 2020, www.newsecuritybeat.org/2020/07/plastic-pollution-woven-fast-fashion-culture-2/.
