Back in 2021 we started thinking about the fabrics we use for most of our dachshund coats.  This was long before we all worried about high energy bills and how to reduce the use of washing machines and hot air dryers.  I had been prompted by a number of articles during that summer about the use of washing nets when washing synthetic sports kit, to help keep microplastic particles out of the water supply.  I wanted to think about how I could reduce my own particle shedding through laundry wastewater.  And that got me thinking about the fabrics that Barkmatic uses to make our weatherproof dachshund coats.

Most of our Barkmatic dachshund coats are made from high performance, high quality technical fabrics which are composed of synthetic materials such as nylon, polyester and silicone.  Our coats are designed to last a long time, ideally for the lifetime of an adult dog.  We understand that this is a problem with synthetics when it comes to recycling them when the garment is no longer required, but switching from synthetic materials to natural materials comes with other substantial environmental costs. It’s a complex issue. ⁠In our ideal world, dachshund owners would buy fewer coats but ones that fit properly and last for years, so initial consumption is less.  That's the subject of another blog post. 

What's wrong with microplastic particles?

There seems to be general agreement that shedding from synthetic clothes in home washing machines make up about 35% of the global release of microplastic. Once in the water supply, microplastics are ingested by marine life, and once ingested they may affect animals in terms of behaviour or biological processes. It's not just our oceans and the animals in them that are being affected by microplastics, they’ve started to enter our food chain and pollute the air we breathe. There are strong indications that plastic and its toxic additives are bad for human health too. 

Wipe, don´t wash

In our experience, for most dog coats that are muddy from walking outside, it's sufficient to clean them with a short rinse under a tap, or a quick wipe with a damp cloth. Or you can let the coats dry and then brush or vacuum them.  The faster you do this when you get home after a muddy walk, the easier it is to keep any dog coat clean.  The only exception to this might be dirt and mud in highly polluted urban areas, which I think must be mixed in with oily particulate matter and leaves a blacker mark on our coats.  Living in central London made us realise that despite improvements in emission levels, there´s still slightly oily mud and dirt everywhere, which needs to be washed out with detergent. 

We therefore suggest that you ¨Wipe (don’t wash)¨ your dog coats wherever possible. We´re not just talking about Barkmatic coats obviously, but any dog coat made from synthetic materials.  If you need to wash synthetic garments in the machine, then the use of the right kind of net (check them out online) will help to a degree.  By keeping synthetics out of our washing machines, we reduce the amount of microparticles that go into wastewater, and after that into our oceans and waterways.⁠

What else can we do?

If you´re interested in helping to solve the problem of microparticles, we recommend the website of the Dutch organisation Plastic Soup Foundation.  

#plasticpollution#microplastics#plasticsoup

Thanks for listening!