Your clothes are shedding bits of plastic. Here’s what people are doing about it this Earth Day

Bottles and bags, food wrappers and straws. Piping, packaging, toys and trays. Plastic is everywhere — and yet some people may be surprised at how much they actually wear.

A typical closet is loaded with plastic, woven into polyester activewear, acrylic sweaters, nylon swimsuits and stretchy socks — and it’s shedding into the environment nonstop.

When garments are worn, washed and put through the dryer, they shed plastic fiber fragments. A single load of laundry can release millions that are so tiny wastewater treatment plants can’t capture them all. They wind up in local waterways that connect to the ocean. Marine animals eat them, and that can pass plastic to larger animals and humans.

Even natural fabrics shed fibers and have chemicals that can leach into the environment. But polyester is the most widely used fiber on Earth, and along with other synthetic fibers accounts for about two-thirds of production worldwide.

Tuesday is Earth Day, when people worldwide contemplate ways to reduce their impact on the planet.

“Everyone who wears and launders clothing is part of this problem but everyone who wears and launders clothing can be part of the solutions,” said Rachael Z. Miller, founder of Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean.

Simple changes like washing clothes less and using cold water instead of hot can help reduce the shedding of fibers. More challenging is that textiles need to be produced and used in a more sustainable way, said Elisa Tonda at the UN Environment Programme. For example, designing clothes that shed fewer microfibers and are high-quality to last longer, said Tonda, who leads the resources and markets branch.

The easiest solution is to wash clothes less often, making for less of the friction that breaks fibers apart, said Anja Brandon, director of plastics policy at Ocean Conservancy.

“They get tumbled and tossed around with a bunch of soaps, really designed to shake things up to get out dirt and stains,” Brandon said.

Miller uses a stain stick to spot-clean. Both say that when clothes are washed, they shed less when put in cold water in full loads to reduce friction, on a shorter cycle, then hung to dry.

Inspired by the way coral filters the ocean, Miller invented the Cora Ball, a laundry ball that can be tossed into the washer to cut down on clothes banging into each other. It also catches microfibers. (A portion of the proceeds goes to the Rozalia Project.) Another option is to put synthetic fabrics in a washing bag that captures fibers.

Which clothes shed the most? To find out, press a strip of clear packing tape to a garment, then stick it to white paper to check for fibers, Miller said. Garments that are loosely knit or woven tend to shed more, such as fleece.

Miller said people don't need to rush to throw out clothing that's more likely to shed. She owns fleece jackets herself. Instead, she suggested such clothing can be worn indoors only or outside with a layer on top, and it's worth thinking twice about acquiring more garments like that.

“I try not to guilt or panic people because a lot of this information is very new,” Miller said. “And so we might as well just say, ‘OK, I got it. How can I be strategic about what I’ve got?’”

Filters can be added to washers to capture microfibers. Samsung Electronics collaborated with Patagonia and the global conservation organization Ocean Wise to launch one in 2023. It's now sold in more than 20 countries for front-load washers. Bosch recently launched a microfiber filter in Europe for washers.

France was first to adopt a law to mandate that new washing machines sold in the country have a microfiber filter, though implementation has been delayed.

In the U.S., efforts to mandate filters in states have failed. California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill in 2023, saying he was concerned about the cost to consumers and he wants to incentivize, not mandate, technologies to remove microfibers in wastewater. In Oregon, state Sen. Deb Patterson proposed a bill this year requiring microfiber filters on new washers sold in that state after she came across the technology in Canada. Patterson said the bill doesn't have enough support yet but she'll keep trying.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers opposes the proposals, saying it's concerned about consumer costs and filter effectiveness.

Some big brands are testing their fabrics to help researchers understand fiber fragmentation, including Adidas, Nike, Patagonia and Under Armour.

They're among more than 90 brands, retailers and manufacturers to partner with The Microfibre Consortium in the United Kingdom, founded in 2018 to do research and offer solutions to transform textile production — including reducing fiber breakup.

Nearly 1,500 fabrics have been tested. None are the same, making it a tough problem to solve, consortium CEO Kelly Sheridan said.

Patagonia has been a leader in trying to stop the spread of synthetic fiber waste into air and water, saying it's up to garment brands to prevent it at the source since cleaning up microplastics in the environment is not yet possible.

It paid for its own research starting a decade ago on the implication of its clothes. The company worked with suppliers to choose fabrics and dyes and to finish their clothing in ways that reduce shedding. They collaborated on new filtration technologies for washers, textile mills and municipal systems.

One of their best-known styles is something called the “better sweater" that shifts from virgin polyester to recycled polyester to cut shedding by about 40%, said Matt Dwyer, vice president of global product footprint. And at textile mills, there's a prewash at the factory that can capture that first big shed, he added.

Dwyer is optimistic about progress.

“There’s a whole lot of smart people, not just understanding the problem and the scope of the problem, but also looking for solutions all the way through the manufacturing cycle and use phase,” he said. “Compared to 10 years ago, it’s a whole new world.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, tosses a Cora Ball, a laundry ball that can be tossed into the washer to cut down on clothes banging into each other, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, examines a fleece jacket using a microscope to display the microfibers that make up a single garment on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, displays a Cora Ball, a laundry ball that can be tossed into the washer to cut down on clothes banging into each other and also catches microfibers, on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, conducts a tape test on various clothing items to compare how much each material sheds microfibers on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, conducts a tape test on various clothing items to compare how much each material sheds microfibers on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, conducts a tape test on various clothing items to compare how much each material sheds microfibers on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

Rachael Z. Miller, founder of the Vermont-based Rozalia Project for a Clean Ocean, conducts a tape test on various clothing items to compare how much each material sheds microfibers on Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Granville, Vt. (AP Photo/Amanda Swinhart)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch comedy series “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” and made over 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, has died at age 88.

Buzzi died Thursday at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstadt said. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and was in hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband Kent Perkins, had posted a statement on Buzzi's Facebook page, thanking her many fans and telling them: “She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them.”

Buzzi won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for the NBC show that ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot.

She was first spotted by “Laugh-In” creator and producer George Schlatter playing various characters on “The Steve Allen Comedy Hour.”

Schlatter was holding auditions for “Laugh-In” when he received a picture in the mail of Buzzi in her Ormphby costume, sitting in a wire mesh trash barrel. The character was clad in drab brown with her bun covered by a hairnet knotted in the middle of her forehead.

“I think I hired her because of my passion for Gladys Ormphby,” he wrote in his 2023 memoir “Still Laughing A Life in Comedy.” “I must admit that the hairnet and the rolled-down stockings did light my fire. My favorite Gladys line was when she announced that the day of the office Christmas party, they sent her home early.”

The Gladys character used her purse as a weapon against anyone who bothered her, striking people over the head. On “Laugh-In,” her most frequent target was Arte Johnson’s dirty old man character Tyrone F. Horneigh.

“Gladys embodies the overlooked, the downtrodden, the taken for granted, the struggler,” Buzzi told The Connecticut Post in 2018. “So when she fights back, she speaks for everyone who’s been marginalized, reduced to a sex object or otherwise abused. And that’s almost everyone at some time or other.”

Buzzi took her act to the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts in Las Vegas, where she bashed her purse on the heads of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Lucille Ball, among others.

“Ruth Buzzi brought a singular energy and charm to sketch comedy that made her a standout on ‘Laugh-In’ and the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. Her characters, especially the unforgettable Gladys Ormphby, captured the delightful absurdity of the era," said Journey Gunderson, executive director of the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York.

Her other recurring characters on “Laugh-In” included Flicker Farkle; Busy-Buzzi, a Hollywood gossip columnist; Doris Swizzler, a cocktail-lounge regular who got drunk with husband Leonard, played by Dick Martin; and an inconsiderate flight attendant.

“I never took my work for granted, nor assumed I deserved more of the credit or spotlight or more pay than anyone else,” Buzzi told The Connecticut Post. “I was just thrilled to drive down the hill to NBC every day as an employed actor with a job to do.”

Buzzi remained friends through the years with “Laugh-In” co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jo Anne Worley.

Born Ruth Ann Buzzi on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Angelo Buzzi, a nationally known stone sculptor. Her father and later her brother operated Buzzi Memorials, a gravestone and monument maker in Stonington, Connecticut, where she was head cheerleader in high school.

Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse at age 17. Two years later, she traveled with singer Rudy Vallee in a musical and comedy act during her summer break. That earned her an Actors’ Equity union card before she graduated from the playhouse’s College of Theatre Arts.

Buzzi moved to New York and was immediately hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 such shows she performed in on the East Coast.

She got her national television break on “The Garry Moore Show” in 1964, just after Carol Burnett was replaced by Dorothy Loudon on the series. She played Shakundala the Silent, a bumbling magician’s assistant to Dom DeLuise’s character Dominic the Great.

Buzzi was a regular on the CBS variety show “The Entertainers” whose hosts included Burnett and Bob Newhart.

She was in the original Broadway cast of “Sweet Charity” with Gwen Verdon in 1966.

Buzzi toured the country with her nightclub act, including appearances in Las Vegas.

She was a semi-regular on “That Girl” as Marlo Thomas’ friend. She co-starred with Jim Nabors as time-traveling androids on “The Lost Saucer” in the mid-1970s.

Her other guest appearances included variety shows hosted by Burnett, Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, Tony Orlando, Donny and Marie Osmond and Leslie Uggams.

She appeared in Ball’s last comedy series “Life With Lucy.”

Buzzi guested in music videos with “Weird Al” Yankovic, the B-52’s and the Presidents of the United States of America.

She did hundreds of guest voices in cartoon series including “Pound Puppies,” “Berenstain Bears,” “The Smurfs” and “The Angry Beavers.”

She was Emmy nominated for her six-year run as shopkeeper Ruthie on “Sesame Street.”

Her movie credits included “Freaky Friday,” “Chu Chu and the Philly Flash,” “The North Avenue Irregulars” and “The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.”

Buzzi was active on social media and had thousands of followers whom she rewarded with such one-liners as “I have never faked a sarcasm” and “Scientists say the universe is made up entirely of neurons, protons and electrons. They seem to have missed morons.”

She married actor Perkins in 1978.

The couple moved from California to Texas in 2003 and bought a 640-acre ranch near Stephenville.

Buzzi retired from acting in 2021 and suffered a series of strokes the following year. Her husband told The Dallas Morning News in 2023 that she had dementia.

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Associated Press National Writer Hillel Italie contributed to this report.

FILE - "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" cast members, from left, Lily Tomlin, Henry Gibson, Ruth Buzzi and Gary Owens pose for the media Tuesday, April 2, 2002, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, file)

FILE - "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" co-stars Ruth Buzzi and Gary Owens share a laugh during NBC's 75th Anniversary Party, in Los Angeles, Jan. 9, 2002. (AP Photo/Rene Macura, File)