Sustainable textiles

If I were to write a book on sustainability, clothes would be one of the largest chapters in that book. That's because there are so many issues with clothing, starting from how the fabrics are being made to the processing, sweatshops, biodegradability, marketing and so on. I’m not here to write a book. I've decided to keep this as short as possible by dividing the many aspects of clothing into several posts. I might even make a video sometime.

What to look for when you shop
I’ll start with something basic, fabrics. The fabrics used in clothing can be divided into two main categories: manufactured fabrics and natural fabrics. The names are self-explanatory. One is synthesized and the other one is derived more directly from nature.

The manufactured fabrics are either synthetic polymers (polyester, acrylic, nylon and spandex) or natural polymers (rayons such as viscose, lyocell and modal). There are more but you'll most likely find one of these when looking at labels. The rayons are actually biodegradable, therefore some will argue that they’re environmental too. It really depends though. The way most rayons are produced are not environmentally friendly at all. The only upside to this is that the production of rayons requires less water than the plant based natural fabrics. (You'll get to read about that in a minute). Currently, Tencel® is the most sustainably produced rayon. Tencel® is lyocell made by the Austrian company Lenzig AG, one of few companies that produce rayons in a more sustainable way.

Then we have natural fabrics that are either plant (cotton, linen, hemp and flax) or protein derived (wool, silk, cashmere, angora, llama, mohair and alpaca). Once again, this just the most common ones. They are all biodegradable but there are other ethical and environmental issues with these. First of all, the protein derived fabrics are not vegan. Although no animals are killed, many still find animal derived products unethical. The plant derived fabrics are not sin free either. Plant based textile production uses a lot of energy, with cotton being the largest culprit. An unbelievable amount of water goes into producing a single piece of clothing. We’re talking hundreds, even thousands of gallons. Cotton production accounts for 16 percent of global pesticide release. On top of that it uses one of the most poisonous pesticides on the market, creating a toxic environment for the workers and possibly toxic clothing too.

Organically grown fabric would be ideal, if it wasn't for all the processing it has to go through. It may not be so organic after all. Cleaning is still required and this process uses toxic chemicals, making the fabric no better than the non-organic version. In the end no alternative is truly sustainable. You can only choose what you think is the lesser evil. I still choose natural fabrics, solely because they are all completely biodegradable. Synthetic polymer clothing is basically plastic clothing. Every time such clothing is being washed it releases microplastics. This plastic ends up in our ocean, harming the aquatic life.

Make sure to check the label on your clothing next time you buy!