Every time we wash our clothes, we unknowingly release a hidden pollutant – microfibres – into our water, soil and air. Garments can shed up to 1,900 microfibres in a single wash, and globally, washing machines are estimated to release microfibres equivalent to 20 million pairs of socks annually into the environment. Microfibres are now found everywhere from sea ice to soil ecosystems. A new book by Dr Verity Jones and a team of researchers from UWE, Bristol on microfibres takes this invisible crisis and makes it visible for children, educators, and communities – showing how everyday clothing choices ripple across the planet.

This story isn’t just about synthetic fleeces and fast fashion hauls. School uniforms are a major part of the problem – and also the solution.

Business Waste UK revealed that  4 million school uniforms are thrown away every year in the UK. This highlights the enormous environmental footprint of our schoolwear system. Many of these uniforms contain polyester – a synthetic, plastic fibre that never really biodegrades. Instead, it breaks down into microplastics that infiltrate soil, waterways, and eventually, our food chains. With a typical school of 1,000 pupils generating 2–3 tonnes of uniform waste annually through outgrown or damaged items, the scale becomes even harder to ignore. 

The Global Goals Centre’s Better Uniform Campaign tackles these issues head-on. By encouraging reuse systems, sustainableprocurement, and youth-led innovation, it challenges schools to rethink not just what children wear – but what kind of future they are wearing it into.

Young People Want to Understand Fast Fashion

Research Tessa Podpadec and Verity Jones  conducted revealed that while young people care deeply about climate change, they often don’t see the connection between their clothes and climate impacts. This study showed that fast fashion remains alluring, fuelled in part by social media trends, and yet young people lack accessible, engaging tools to understand its consequences. 

The new microfibres book is one such tool. The Better Uniform Campaign is another. When combined, they become a catalyst for climate literacy embedded not as a bolt-on lesson, but as a lived, daily experience.

The Better Uniform Campaign’s push toward long-lasting, ethically produced, low-impact clothing directly addresses this. It echoes wider sustainability research showing that natural or recycled fibres, uniform reuse schemes, and circular design can dramatically reduce environmental harm.

A Generation Ready to Lead Change

At events like the Global Goal Centre’s Earth Day Heroes Awards, young people have shown they are not just ready but eager to drive change. The Better Uniform Campaign , rooted in UWE research, demonstrates that pupils can identify problems, co-create solutions, and champion sustainable school cultures when given the chance. 

Our message is simple:

If we want young people to help fix the future, we must stop dressing them in part of the problem.

Towards a Better Wardrobe for a Better World

The microfibres book opens conversations.
The Better Uniform Campaign opens possibilities.
And together, they open the door to a generation empowered with knowledge, creativity, and agency.