TY - JOUR A1 - Heller, C. A1 - Altmann, Korinna A1 - Braun, U. A1 - Kerndorff, A. A1 - Bannick, C.-G. A1 - Fuchs, M. A1 - Thamsen, P. U. T1 - Garment ageing in a laundry care process under household‐like conditions JF - Applied Research N2 - This study reflects typical consumer textile washing behaviour while taking into account existing standards in the household appliance and garment industries. Two garments were washed repeatedly with artificial dirt and detergent 30 times. The collected washing water was separated using fractional filtration. Textile physical tests were used to follow property changes of the garments, the microplastic release is determined using thermoextraction/desorbtion–gas chromatography/mass spectrometry and the total organic carbon was measured as a sum parameter for the organic bonded carbon. This article shows the importance of a reality‐based approach when investigating microplastics of textile origin in the laundry care process. Deposits of detergent and dirt on the textiles were detected. The total mass of sieve residues was much higher than the release of synthetic polymers. The cotton content of the garments causes a much higher fibre release than synthetic fibres. Both will lead to false results by purely gravimetric analysis because nonpolymer fibres will be included microplastic mass. The results cannot be generalised only by the main polymer type, knowledge of the textile construction must be included for final evaluation. KW - Fibre release KW - Microplastics KW - TED-GC/MS KW - Washing machine PY - 2023 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/appl.202200086 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Wiley online library AN - OPUS4-56976 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -