With concerns mounting over microplastic contamination of the world's oceans, a team of scientists from AgResearch, a Crown Research Institute in New Zealand, has conducted a new study to determine how different shredded fabrics degrade in a marine environment. The scientists tested untreated wool, treated machine washable wool, polyester, nylon, polypropylene and viscose rayon. The laboratory experiments found that even treated wool biodegrades in seawater. Stewart Collie, bioproduct & fibre technology team leader at AgResearch, presented the results of the full 90-day study at the 2019 [WTO Wool Round Table, held in gueenstown on New Zealand's South Island on 2-3 December. "We can summarise the key results by saying wool degrades readily in an accelerated marine biodegradation test," Collie told delegates. "That is what we hoped to see and we can confirm that's the case." He added that cellulose materials also biodegraded readily in the test, but that the synthetic fibres showed virtually no degradation.
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