Natural fibers in wet wipes can actually be harmful to soil and animals

The natural fibers increasingly used in wet wipes can actually have a more negative impact on the environment than the synthetic fibers they are designed to replace.

Viscose and lyocell, made from wood cellulose, are often used in wet wipes and clothing instead of fibers such as polyester, which are primarily byproducts of fossil fuels.

“They’re in high street stores, so they’re available in the ethical consumer sections of fast fashion stores,” says Winnie Courtone-Jones of Bangor University in the UK.

However, there is uncertainty as to whether they are truly better than the materials they replace. “There’s been a bit of a knee-jerk reaction to move away from traditional fossil fuel-based plastics and replace them with alternatives, and there hasn’t been much testing of those other materials,” Corton says. Jones says.

To learn more, she and her colleagues tested the effects of viscose, lyocell, and polyester on the soil and some of the animals that live there. Wet wipes often end up in sewage treatment plants along with microfibers that fall off clothes in washing machines. These are accidentally spread into the soil through sludge from these plants, which is used as fertilizer.

The research team is a type of earthworm (Eisenia fetida) changes the concentration of viscose, lyocell, and polyester in the soil. Approximately 30 percent of people exposed to high concentrations of polyester died after 72 hours. In comparison, almost 60 percent of those exposed to lyocell and 80 percent of those exposed to viscose died.

When researchers tested it at lower concentrations that are more commonly encountered in the real world, they found that nematodes exposed to viscose or lyocell reproduced less than those exposed to polyester. Ta. It is unclear why this occurs, but fibrous material, regardless of its composition, can be toxic to earthworms.

“Bio-based fibers may be better when produced because they are not based on fossil fuels, but there is no clear vision as to whether they are better when broken down,” says Caroline Gochot-Lindsay from the University of Glasgow. he says. In England. “They still have a place because we still need to replace the fossil fuel industry. But it’s important to know that the message is not that if they go into the environment it will be better.”