In its 2008 heyday, the blog Stuff White People Like took aim at the ubiquity of ‘outdoor performance clothes’-people’s penchant for marching down city streets and suburban strip malls dressed as if they were slogging the Appalachian Trail.

It turns out, our devotion to outdoor wear might be more than just a crime against fashion. It might also be a crime against the outdoors itself-or at least, that vast swath of it that’s covered by ocean.

Over on Grist, Clare Leschin-Hoar brings the bad news. She points to a recent study showing that ‘nearly 2,000 polyester fibers can shake loose from a single piece of clothing in the wash and, unfortunately, those tiny plastic bits are making their way into the ocean.’

Just how prevalent are they? In a recent Science study, researchers took sand from 18 beaches over six continents, Clare Leschin-Hoar reports. The results?

Every beach tested contained microplastics (particles about the size of a piece of long grain of rice or smaller). Of the samples collected, nearly 80 percent were polyester or acrylic, though without further research, it’s impossible to know exactly which type of clothing-whether it’s your stretchy yoga pants or that super-soft fleece blanket-is causing […]