Patagonia’s Major Microplastic ProblemWhen you buy a fleece from Patagonia, you know you’re buying from a company that cares about the planet. But these days, customers of the brand may also get a more novel sensation: that you might actually be helping the environment by expanding your wardrobe. In November, the New York Times Opinion section published an essay by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard in which he not only decried the proliferation of low-quality goods, but boasted about his company’s high-quality products in a very specific way: they make things, he wrote, that “cause the least amount of harm to our planet.” One big problem with that statement, as Patagonia has discovered in recent years, is a tiny pollutant that sheds from all synthetic clothing — with fleece textiles being some of the worst offenders — and is causing experts to raise the alarm: plastic microfibers, a specific type of microplastic. In recent years, microplastics have been found in the Arctic Ocean, breast milk, placentas and even human blood. Is Patagonia misrepresenting its environmental (and human) impact? Or is this yet another case where the companies trying to do good bear the brunt of the criticism? | 
