Dear Editor,
I read Kathrine Gammon's piece (The Guardian, 3rd Mar 2022, link below) on the State of California considering measures to eradicate microplastics. This is certainly a necessary goal and well-timed as the UN is currently meeting in Nairobi to discuss the problem of plastic pollution.
But the yawing gap in the measures comes in the listing of the sources: Both tyre-dust (from tyre-tread) and fluff from washing synthetic textiles (correctly positioned at the head of your list!) are the main contributors to the problem with these two alone forming about two thirds of all ocean microplastic (as previously reported by The Guardian). But these two sources are not mentioned in the potential solutions ... which seem to, instead, concentrate on packaging materials.
In most developed countries, packaging can be collected before it enters the waterways. Whereas (microscopic) tyre-dust and synthetic microfluff cannot.
It is a real shame but I will simply not be able to take any of the proposed measures (in California and elsewhere) seriously until tyre-dust and synthetic textiles are included in the equation.
Regards
