POLYESTER
Polyester is a very complex topic. The production of this man-made fiber includes many unfavorable steps until it ends up as a fabric. The actual formation of this manufactured synthetic fiber (1) is detrimental to our planet, most notably, its contribution to climate change.
Polyester is a petroleum-derived fiber (1), mainly drilled out of sediment rock (2), hence the name. Petroleum is a combination of two Latin words: ‘petra’ defined as rock and ‘oleum’ defined as oil (3). This natural resource is a hot product on the market for a variety of different industries, including but not limited to heating homes (2). For a natural resource that fuels everyday living, and in addition for specialty items, we are running out of it quickly.
Background/History of Petroleum
To clarify, petroleum and crude oil are interchangeable. Some sources say petroleum is a type of crude oil, however they are the same product.
Petroleum comes straight out of the Earth and is later refined in a factory from its natural state. So, if it’s a resource that comes straight from the earth, why is there not an on-growing supply? Let’s take it back to the Mesozoic era (4). Petroleum is a combination of dead plants, algae, and plankton living underneath the seafloor that eventually turn into hydrocarbons (2). Catagenesis has multiple levels leading to different forms of hydrocarbon products in addition to petroleum (2). With that information, we can conclude that this fossil fuel, petroleum, is derived from fossils. This million-year formation is all we have for the next millions of years (2). Once abundant, but now quickly running out at a rate faster than expected.
Drilling for Petroleum
Harvesting petroleum is a challenge. Machines and tools extract and transport this oil to eventually land at petroleum mills. The Oil-drill rig is a massive machine that drills into sediment and rock to extract crude oil from both above and underwater basins (2). With much control of the machine and transportation process, spills of hazardous, unrefined oil still happen to spill on nearby groundwater and/or leach into the soil.
Soil
Oil-contaminated soil makes it nearly impossible for plants to grow and reproduce. Soil microorganisms, also called microbes (5), support a plant’s natural life, from birth to survival. Without microbes, how will plants and trees be able to grow? We need trees to absorb CO2 and give us energy. In addition, without soil, we are limiting the amount of safe reservoirs to supply drinking water (6). A wide array of scientific research proves that oil spills can cause soil depletion, making the taxonomic groups of nature very hard to survive and grow again (7). A soil's ability to absorb nutrients changes when oil sits on the surface and absorbs through, the microbes react, changing the diverse role soil plays. Once the oil contaminates the soil, the way the soil acts changes too (8). There is only so much we can clean up before the oil seeps into the ground when there is a spill. We desperately need taxonomic groups of plants and trees to supply us with natural oxygen.
Water
50-75% of the oxygen we breathe comes from life in water (9)(10). If bodies of water are destroyed, not only will we lose drinking water, but we will be robbing humanity of the most crucial source of what we fuel to undergo the necessary act of breathing.
Algae + Phytoplankton
The sun provides food for algae and phytoplankton in the form of light, so they are able to create and release oxygen into the water. This process is called photosynthesis.
There are two ways in which photosynthetic organisms (algae/phytoplankton) will not be able to produce oxygen:
Slick, the thick dark layer of oil that sits on top of the water, prevents sunlight from entering the water, blocking access for photosynthetic organisms to retrieve the light (11).
When petroleum interacts with water, the hydrocarbons change the chemical makeup of H2O, so that photosynthetic organisms need to be able to perform photosynthesis.
Fish
Fish play a crucial role in making our drinking water safe. When the petroleum bacteria absorb the oxygen made by the photosynthetic organisms, fewer fish can survive since they need the oxygen to breathe. Fish provide a natural balance of ecosystems within the water, supplying water filtration and nutrient cycling (12). When that balance is disrupted, the components of what makes water safe to drink are no longer.
Water
Petroleum spills can indirectly expose humans to hazards. The chemicals within the unrefined petroleum make water unsafe to drink. The filtration systems within some countries, predominantly in low-income countries, are not strong enough to extract the harmful chemicals. In some cases, the petroleum could even disrupt a filtration system.
Because oil is a natural resource, there is only so much the earth has and produces. Oil is a significant ingredient in most industries, especially the textile industry. The more demand for clothing, the more material we need, which raises the demand for more oil drilling to reach the end product. Petroleum is being extracted at a quicker rate than nature can produce, leading us to get to a point where we reach maximum extraction (peak oil consumed) (2)(1). It has been affecting the environment, we just haven’t seen the effects yet, but they are soon to come. Oil is what our society runs on. It’s what cooks our food, gives us heat, lets us drive. If we are eventually going to run out, how will our society function without the basic necessities like warmth, cooling, and driving? Our civilization will collapse. The increased demand for oil in the textile industry is not a sustainable model for how and where we use our resources. There is a finite amount of oil, and there is no way to measure it. If the demand for oil in the textile industry keeps increasing, it is an exact catalyst of speeding the time in which the Earth runs out of oil. When oil wells run dry, we need to make a new well which increases the areas of exposure to environmental impact.
polyester
polyester
Polyester Production Process
Polymerization
Turning the natural resource, crude oil/petroleum, into a fiber, seems nearly impossible… converting a highly toxic liquid into a solid used for everyday use sounds crazy. The first step in this conversion is polymerization, using chemicals to create polyester (13). The product appears through synthesis, a chemical reaction.
The organic compound dimethyl terephthalate, petrochemical form petroleum, ethylene glycol, and other catalysts are mixed and heated to 302-410 degrees Fahrenheit(14). This reaction process creates a monomer (13). During the reaction process, most of the mixture is turned into a monomer (13). Eventually, it is heated with terephthalic acid for the molten used to create the physical fiber (13). However, the results of this reaction process are not always in our control. Byproducts from the chemical reactions are formed, unseen, but still present in the monomer (18). When petroleum-derived items sit in a landfill, the soil, or the ocean, they release all of the byproducts that result from synthesis, releasing harmful chemicals (18). These products are also detrimental to human health. Employees who work in this process are exposed to these harmful chemicals via water and air consumption.
Most of why polyester is so environmentally damaging is the process. The byproduct of the reactions to the amount of heat used on these chemicals is of much concern. Producing heat takes a large amount of energy as well as extrudes gas into the air. Carbon Dioxide, Methane, and Nitrous Oxide are the main outcomes of this process. The more greenhouse gasses produced, the higher accumulation the earth's atmosphere receives and traps, eventually contributing to climate change. This conundrum brings on the lack of resources including necessities of food, water, and oxygen to breathe. Sulfur, for example, is just one of the elements that are found in petroleum once heat is introduced (16). The heat creates sulfur dioxide, a gas that is highly toxic and dangerous for human exposure (15). Isn’t it crazy how something we use every day can have that much impact on the Earth?
At an even higher temperature, the created monomer and terephthalic acid are combined, creating a molten substance in the similar form of ribbon. Terephthalic acid starts as a powder, and when combined with another substance and heated, becomes more viable (17). According to the EPA, terephthalic acid is considered hazardous, which can result in irritation that affects breathing if the chemicals from the acid are circulating in the air (17).
The chemicals that are used have a hard time escaping the air due to poor circulation, directly affecting employees, and causing airborne illnesses.
Drying
Eventually, the formation cools and is cut into small chips. This is now a polymer (13).
Melt Spinning
More energy is used to re-melt the chip creating a thick liquid consistency. It is pushed through a machine called a spinnerette, which creates the physical thread product (13). Additional chemicals are usually added to make the thread versatile in use (18).
Drawing The Fiber + Winding
The fiber poured from the spinneret is tugged multiple times to become thinner and to build up its strength. It is pulled to create different thread formations and eventually spun into spools. (13)
Microplastic
Microplastics are pieces of plastic that are microscopic to the human eye, nearly invisible without a great set of glasses. Microplastics are shed from water bottles and other plastic products, the more we reuse them, and textiles made from polyester the more it is washed. If we dissect a fish’s body, we will see a lot of microplastic buildups stored, mainly from the litter that ends up in the ocean. For humans, when we consume from a plastic water bottle, microplastic is shed into what we are drinking. Microplastics are shed from water bottles and a number of common day home products that we use daily. Currently, the impact of microplastic is uncertain, but development is happening to know the severity.
To turn the natural resource, petroleum (monomer) into the fiber polyester or a water bottle (polymer), a chemical reaction needs to exist (18). Outside ingredients like additional chemicals, catalysts, and enzymes are added to help form this reaction (18). These additives can easily be broken down with exposure to UV radiation (18). PET WHAT IS PET is very sensitive to heat. UV radiation breaks down the polymer, into the different components in which it was made, in addition to triggering the petrochemicals (19). When PET is in contact with soil on a hot day, chemicals can leach into the ground changing the biology of the soil and creating depletion (19). When PET is exposed to large bodies of water on a hot day, chemicals contaminate the waters affecting its biology. These polluted waters hurt the coral reef, marine life, and photosynthetic organisms. PET affects our drinking water because different filtration systems have limitations. Other countries have varying levels of filtration, some stronger and some weaker People can experience different chemical contaminants in drinking water depending on the income of the area in which they live.
WORK CITED
Polyester . CFDA. (n.d.). https://cfda.com/resources/materials/detail/polyester#:~:text=Polyester%20is%20a%20manufactured%20synthetic,agricultural%20crops%2C%20or%20even%20waste
Petroleum. National Geographic Education. (n.d.). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/petroleum/
Atwater, G. I., & McLeroy, P. G. (2024, May 9). Petroleum. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/petroleum
How oil is formed | resources | smart touch energy. SmartTouchEnergy. (n.d.). https://www.smarttouchenergy.com/resources/how-oil-is-made
U.S. National Library of Medicine. (2022, April 5). In brief: What are microbes?. InformedHealth.org [Internet]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279387/#:~:text=Microbes%20are%20tiny%20living%20things,soil%2C%20and%20in%20the%20air
Mullen, K. (n.d.). Groundwater: Information on Earth’s water. Default. https://www.ngwa.org/what-is-groundwater/About-groundwater/information-on-earths-water#:~:text=Most%20of%20the%20water%20used,soil%20moisture%20and%20in%20aquifers
Petroleum | Soil Science Society of America. Soil Science Society of America . (n.d.). https://www.soils.org/about-soils/contaminants/petroleum
Pollution. National Geographic Education. (n.d.-b). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/pollution/
Oxygen Levels. Understanding Global Change. (2022, March 8). https://ugc.berkeley.edu/background-content/oxygen-levels/#:~:text=Photosynthesizing%20algae%20in%20the%20ocean,photosynthesizing%20bacteria%20that%20produce%20oxygen
How much oxygen comes from the ocean?. NOAA’s National Ocean Service. (n.d.). https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/ocean-oxygen.html
Understanding oil spills and oil spill response. EPA. (1999, December). https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2018-01/documents/ospguide99.pdf
Holmlund, C. M., & Hammer, M. (1999). Ecosystem services generated by fish populations. ELSEVIER. https://www3.epa.gov/region1/npdes/schillerstation/pdfs/AR-211.pdf
Polyester. How polyester is made - material, manufacture, making, history, used, structure, steps, product, History. (n.d.). https://www.madehow.com/Volume-2/Polyester.html
Cao, F., Wang, L., Zheng, R., Guo, L., Chen, Y., & Qian, X. (2022, November 3). Research and progress of chemical depolymerization of waste pet and high-value application of its depolymerization products. RSC advances. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9632252/
Association, A. L. (n.d.). Sulfur dioxide. American Lung Association. https://www.lung.org/clean-air/outdoors/what-makes-air-unhealthy/sulfur-dioxide#:~:text=SO2%20forms%20when%20sulfur,blow%20hundreds%20of%20miles%20away
Brasted, R. C. (n.d.). Sulfur. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/science/sulfur
Common name: Terephthalic acid hazard ... - nj.gov. New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCE FACT SHEET. (2000, April). https://www.nj.gov/health/eoh/rtkweb/documents/fs/2901.pdf
Almroth, B. C. (2017, December 7). Microplastics - an environmental threat?. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ElM1J0rBVQg?si=3fun0LXNUHuWHadh
Sørensen L, Groven AS, Hovsbakken IA, Del Puerto O, Krause DF, Sarno A, Booth AM. UV degradation of natural and synthetic microfibers causes fragmentation and release of polymer degradation products and chemical additives. Sci Total Environ. 2021 Feb 10;755(Pt 2):143170. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143170. Epub 2020 Oct 22. PMID: 33158534. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33158534/
First photo by Mitchell Leo https://unsplash.com/@mitchel3uo
Second photo by Engin Akyurt https://unsplash.com/@enginakyurt
Third photo by Markus Spiske https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske
