I bought some new socks this week. So what, you might ask. My new socks are lovely and warm and very fluffy – just right for autumn. But, when I wore them, they moulted their fluff all over my feet, and if I’m not careful they will also lose fluff into my washing machine. Again, you may ask – so what? Well, all of this soft fluff isn’t actually as “soft and fluffy” as you might imagine; in fact the fluff from my new polyester socks is made of lots of tiny plastic fibres – and these so-called “microfibres” are a newly recognised source of marine pollution.