We used to wear cotton, wool, linen, and silk—natural fibers grown from the earth. Today, we wear polyester, nylon, acrylic, and elastane. Fossil fuels, spun into fabric. Plastic is the new cotton. Nearly 60% of the clothes produced today contain synthetic fibers. With every wash, they release microplastics. These particles do not disappear. They move from our washing machines into rivers, into oceans, into seafood—and eventually into us. Studies have found microplastics in human blood, lungs, brains, placentas, even breast milk. How did this happen? We call it fast fashion. Cotton grows. Plastic extrudes. It is cheaper. Faster. Stretchier. More profitable. So brands switched. Production accelerated. Costs dropped. Volumes exploded. Yet less than 1% of clothing is recycled back into new garments. The rest is burned, buried, or exported to countries that never asked to be the world’s textile landfill. We convinced ourselves this was innovation. But in reality, we wrapped our bodies in packaging. We are not just wearing clothes. We are wearing oil. And the consequences are already inside us.
