Microplastics are everywhere. Every sample I have analysed, from sediments to fish tissue, has contained tens if not hundreds of plastic particles of different shapes and sizes. I work as a plastic pollution researcher at the University of Toronto, where a large part of my work involves testing and developing methods to analyse microplastics from environmental samples.

Laundry and microplastics don’t seem to have much in common, and yet research is finding that our dirty clothes are polluting our oceans more than ever before.