Beware of alternative solutions! They might even be worse!
Terms like "environmentally friendly" or "clean energy" are often misnomers if not demagoguery!
"... To address that, a study ... has tested the effects of conventional polyester fibers and two bio-based fibers—viscose and lyocell—on earthworms, a species critical to the health of soils globally.
The study found that in high concentrations of fibers, 30% of earthworms died after 72 hours when exposed to polyester, while those exposed to the bio-based fibers experienced much higher mortality of up to 60% in the case of lyocell and 80% for viscose.
A second experiment, using environmentally relevant concentrations of the fibers, indicated that earthworms housed in soils containing viscose fibers exhibited reduced reproduction compared to those exposed to polyester fibers. Earthworms in the soils containing lyocell fibers showed reduced growth and also higher rates of burrowing within the soil compared to exposure to the other types of fiber. ..."
From the abstract:
"Biobased plastics are sometimes promoted as “environmentally friendly” compared to their conventional petrochemical-based counterparts, but their ecotoxicity is only partially understood. Biobased fibers are widely used in clothing and wet wipes and can accumulate in soils through the application of biosolid fertilizers. This study examined the lethal thresholds and sublethal toxicity of chemically characterized, additive-free, biobased (viscose and lyocell) compared to petrochemical-based (polyester) fibers on the key ecosystem engineer, Esenia fetida. Viscose and lyocell had LC20 values of 14.00 and 22.66 mg·L–1, respectively, and no observed effect concentrations (NOEC) of 0–2.8 mg·L–1 (72 h, OECD TG207 filter paper method), while for polyester these were LC20 15.6–31.3 mg·L–1 and NOEC 0–15.6 mg·L–1. Following 28 days of exposure to soils (OECD TG222) contaminated with environmentally relevant concentrations (100 mg kg–1), viscose significantly reduced the mass of progeny compared to polyester. Earthworms exposed to lyocell had a marginal growth reduction (−18%; compared to −11% to −13% in other treatments) linked to increased bioturbation activity. The biobased fibers examined here have greater acute toxicity at high concentrations and broadly similar sublethal effects on E. fetida compared to polyester. Our study highlights the importance of detailed testing before advocating specific materials as plastic alternatives/substitutes to conventional plastics."
Bio-based fibres could pose greater threat to the environment than conventional plastics (original news release)
Graphical abstract
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