WASHING synthetic fabrics on a delicate cycle is polluting the oceans, scientists have claimed.
It causes hundreds of thousands of extra plastic microfibres to be released into our water systems.
They are then likely to be ingested by tiny animals and end up in the food chain.
Experts at Newcastle University found that it is the volume of water used, rather than the spinning action in the drum, which is the key factor in plucking the tiny plastic particles from man-made materials.
Regular washing cycles cause clothes to be bashed together and create more friction between garments. But they use less water than gentler cycles, which agitate the garments less.
Millions of plastic microfibres are shed every time we wash clothes containing materials such as nylon, polyester and acrylic. Studies have shown they are in the deepest parts of our ocean.
The latest research measured the release of microfibres from polyester clothes from a range of different cycles, temperatures and water volumes.
Using a hi-tech camera, they counted 1.4 million fibres from a delicate wash of a polyester garment. But a normal cotton wash produced 800,000 and a cold express programme 600,000.
The scientists recommended using the correct cycle and to avoid half loads so there is not a high volume of water to garments.
