Organic Cotton comes from natural seeds; there’s no use of harmful pesticides and other harmful chemicals since it’s production introduces beneficial insects . Growing cotton organically is also water conserving and keeps soil balanced. It is hand-picked and weeded by hand which eliminates the need for herbicides.

Regular Cotton starts with GMO seeds. They are modified to resist pests, but when the bugs become stronger, more pesticides are required. (And just a reminder, fertilizers and pesticides are both non-renewable resources.)

So if GMO Cotton AKA Regular Cotton is so bad for us and the environment why do we do it?

Supply and Demand: More importance in the Economy rather than the Environment = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

• Profit for farmers: Annual values of U.S. cotton sold overseas recently have averaged almost $5 billion

• Profit for agribusiness: US Cotton Farmers Yearly Investments are:
• $155 million in farm labor compared to:
  • $920 million in fertilizers
  • $695 million in agricultural chemicals
  • $1.0 billion in planting seed
  • $2.1 billion in fuel and equipment

Impact of Dyeing and finishing all cotton

Dyeing requires massive water usage and results in dye runoff, often with heavy metals

Bleach uses Dioxin-producing chlorine compounds

Poly Cotton is treated with formaldehyde to achieve ‘easy care’, ‘crease resistant’, ‘permanent press’ cotton)

Dioxins are environmental pollutants. Highly toxic, they belong to the so-called “dirty dozen” – a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Dioxins can cause reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, interfere with hormones and also cause cancer.

 People want safe and organic clothes, but the USDA needs stricter standards.

The only standard for clothing that is labeled organic that the USDA requires that it “be made with fibers from USDA-certified organic crops” (USDA.gov, 2018).

“…..an organic cotton product can be dyed or be given a chemical treatment by separate manufacturers and can still be sold as 100 percent organic cotton.” (Chaley 2018)

In 2017, “495,948 bales of organic cotton were grown by 219,947 farmers on 747,647 acres” (textileexchange.org) . These numbers seem substantial, but when compared to other cotton production, only 0.5% was produced organically and yet, Cotton represents 38% of the world’s textiles use.

Resources

http://aboutorganiccotton.org/organic-farming-system/

https://sleepsherpa.com/organic-cotton-vs-regular-cotton-whats-difference/

https://textileexchange.org/downloads/2017-organic-cotton-market-report/

http://www.cotton.org/econ/world/index.cfm

https://www.greenchoices.org/green-living/clothes/environmental-impacts

NYLON

Can stretch up to 33% and still keeps its shape

Cheap alternative to silk

Cleans well

Static resistant

Heat sets well to keep shape

Doesn’t absorb liquid and dries quickly

Has bleaching and fading issues

Can melt at high temps

Used in everyday fashion and cookware

Is IS plastic

Cashmere

• The fibers are lie below the goat’s coarse hair as an undercoat of superfine fibers concentrated on the underbelly.

What Makes It So Soft?

• fine diameter-less than 18.5 microns
• the shape of the fibers: it’s bumpy
• The bumpy fibers in cashmere all cling to themselves so nothing sticks out to scratch you

Collecting Fibers Process

• In Asia, Mongolia, Afghanistan, China, Iran
• In May and June, when the goats molt,

1. local workers comb the belly hair
2. sort it by hand
3. send it to a dehairing facility (usually in China) to be cleaned and refined.
4. then it’s baled and delivered to Europe
5. spun into fine yarn and sold to designers for roughly $114 a pound in Europe

• Afghanistan has become exporter of the cashmere due to raw material shortage in Asia

1. The country is rich in unmodified raw materials
2. China has been known to add and blend different qualities of cashmere to achieve volume
3. Afghan goat farmers keep true to the raw unchanged pure cashmere: supplying the market with completely pure knits. (4 goats= 1 sweater)

• Four traditional, primary markets for cashmere production had been the USA, Europe (UK and Italy), Japan and China itself.
• If the cashmere is to be converted into worsted yarn it must first pass through one additional processing step known as combing.

Wool is produced by sheep, so livestock is the foundation for producing wool. But livestock
is damaging the environment.

Effecting on climate change:
– Manure generated from livestock has contributed to the increase in atmospheric
greenhouse gasses over the last 250 years.
– The concentration of methane has increased by more than 130 percent in the U.S.
– In New Zealand, methane emissions from sheep make up more than 90 percent of the
nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Their government proposed taxing sheep farmers to
pay for emission research, but the plan was abandoned.
Land Damaging:
– Oxford researcher studying land degradation in the Karoo, South Africa have noted
“sheep are the cause of vegetation change and oil erosion leading to the formation of
badlands”.
– In the first half of the 20th century, Patagonia, Argentina, was second to Australia in wool
production. But now is no longer a major wool producer. The practices of local sheep farmers
increased the scale of their operations and outgrew the ability of the land to sustain
them. Soil erosion in the region has triggered a desertification process as much as 93
percent of the land.
Water Pollution:
– Fecal matter contaminates waterways in areas where sheep are farmed. A case study
conducted by the New Zealand government on two medium-sized farms found fecal
contamination in the water that “exceeded levels suitable for drinking and safe
recreational use in virtually every reading since 1994, and in recent times … has well
exceeded safe livestock drinking levels ….”
– “Sheep dip” is a toxic chemical used to rid sheep of parasites and presents
disposal problems, harming the environment. A Scottish study of 795 sheep-dip
facilities found that 40 percent presented a pollution risk.
IN an incident from 1995,  a cupful of spent sheep dip, containing highly toxic
synthetic called pyrethroid cypermethrin, killed 1,200 fish downstream from where it was
dumped into a river.
Destroy the ecosystem:
– Many landowners consider kangaroos are bad for growth of sheep, and though there are
some laws governing the killing of kangaroos, on their own property, landowners kill these animals without fear of repercussions.

Polyester
 No impact on land
 Made from oil
 Low use of water
 Very high energy to grow/spin
 High temperature dyeing process
 Not a breathable fabric
 Production used harmful chemicals including carcinogens and if emitted to water & air untreated, it can cause environmental damage
 More than 70 million barrels of oil are used to make polyester each year
 It is believed that synthetic garments are the biggest source of micro plastic pollution in oceans. Up to 1900 fibers can be washed off of one garment every time it is washed

Recycled Polyester
 No impact on land
 Made from plastic bottles that were originally made from petroleum
 Low use of water
 Very high energy to grow/spin
 High temperature dyeing process
 Not a breathable fabric
 Should come from PET 1 type of plastic bottles
 Can be broken into smaller molecules which can be used in cosmetics, medicines, and manufacture new high quality polyester
 Considered “sustainable” because made from recycled plastic bottles
 Still toxic to wearer and environment. Not all plastic is BPA free.
 Micro plastic fibers washed off this fabric to contribute to water pollution
 Recycled polyester is going to end up in landfill anyways, taking 700 years to decompose

Viscose/Rayon

Used to replace more expensive fabrics with softly draping qualities as well as upholstery, bedding, carpets, cellophane, sausage casing!

Invented in late 1800s by Hilaire de Chardonnet but thought too flammable initially; patented around 1900 by British scientists and into commercial production by 1905

Made from fast growing regenerative trees like Eucalyptus, Beech, Pine, Bamboo, Soy, and Sugar Cane; this leads to depletion of native forests, which are replaced with trees to use for rayon.

The cellulose fibers are dissolved chemically then spun into yarn. The chemicals used in process are sodium hydroxide and carbon disulphide –process of dissolving wastes 70% of tree.Process pollutes air and water and thus rayon manufacture has been banned in U. S. since the 1970s.

Fast Fashion encourages non-sustainable manufacturing processed that impact workers, local communities, and environment

Tencel   Developed in 1972 by American Enka in NC became Tencel in 1980s through British company, commercialized in 1990s. Tencel is a brand name for lyocell/modal produced by German company Lenzing.

Made by dissolving wood pulp (Oak and Birch) and drying process called spinning, extruded through small holes, and chemically treated;  solvents are petrochemicals (amine oxide) but recovery rate is 99% (closed loop system).  Can be sourced sustainably and uses less energy, water and dye than cotton to produce. Tencel is 50% more absorbent than cotton.

A member of the camelid family, alpacas on average weigh between 100 and 200 pounds, average about 36” at the withers, have a lifespan of roughly 20 years and come in two different breed types and several naturally occuring colors. They originate from Peru and were first imported to the USA in 1984.

Strong herd animals, alpacas do best when living with at least one other alpaca of the same sex. They do not need a lot of food or land, (1 acre can hold up to 8 alpacas) and do just as well on dry lots as pastures. Land management and cleanup is easy, as alpacas have two toes instead of hooves, allowing them to walk on pastures with minimal impact. Alpacas also have an interesting habit of creating communal dung piles, which makes for easy clean up and minimal environmental impact.

An alpaca is sheared once a year. One well cared for alpaca can produce more fiber than sheep or goats. This fiber is softer and warmer too because of the lack of guard hairs in the alpaca’s coat. Alpacas also lack lanolin, which means a fleece can be skirted, sorted (graded), and then spun before getting washed. Alpaca fiber is also easily dyed which combined with the many naturally occurring colors, creates a wide range of colors and shades.

Cons:

• Most alpaca fiber sold to companies comes from places like Peru, where it is cheaper, which means the fiber has to travel quite a distance before it can get to markets in Europe, Asia or North America

Pros:

• Lots of fiber per animal
• A lot of naturally occurring coat colors (16 according to the Alpaca Owner’s Association in the USA, 52 according to Peruvian authorities, and 12 according to Australian authorities)
• Animals are hardy and make minimal environmental impact (don’t disturb the ground, eat tops of grass not roots)
• Their pellet poop is excellent fertilizer (and easy to clean up)
• Warmer and softer than sheep wool and (depending on quality) cashmere
• Not a lot of processing required to prepare fiber for spinning or dyeing because they lack lanolin and guard hairs