Researchers Measured the Air Around Polyester Clothing and Found More Plastic
Rex Whinfield and James Dickson spun the first polyester fiber in 1941 at the Broad Oak Printworks in Lancashire, England, drawing it from terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol and calling it Terylene. The polymer they made, polyethylene terephthalate, also goes into plastic drink bottles, and the two products overlap so closely that 98 percent of…