What was interesting about looking for the information for this post, was that I found out things that I didn't know and that I didn't expect. Perhaps, some of these are to be expected but what I expect as opposed to what someone else expects varies based on experience. Okay, not going into that philosophy any farther or we will continue to digress.
What exactly does Eco-Friendly fibers mean?
Eco-friendly fibers are not necessarily natural fibers. Natural fibers can be eco-friendly; however, man made fibers can be considered eco-friendly as well depending on the manufacturing processes. On the same note, natural fibers can be considered not eco-friendly. So, what makes a fiber eco-friendly or not eco-friendly? There are a few specific aspects that kept coming up over and over again:
- The use of chemicals and pesticides that are being used during cultivations.
- What land management/farming practices are being employed.
- Production processes adhere to fair trade practices.
So, what exactly does that mean? The first is the renew ability of the product. Renewable resources are something that can be replenished in a fairly short amount of time (unlike those which take thousands of years to build up again.) The next issue is the ecological footprint of the item being produced; so in other words, much much land is being used to support one individual plant from sprout to full growth. What sorts of natural resources are required by this plant to sustain itself. This refers to such things as the mount of water, minerals, and plant/animal matter that is used. The third thing that comes up is to consider which is briefly mentioned above is the amount of chemicals/what types of chemicals go into the growth and the later production and processing of the fiber in order to turn it into the cloth that your clothing is made out of. (6)
So for instance, did you know that growing cotton uses 22.5 percent of all the insecticides used globally? In order to grow enough cotton for one t-shirt you have to have around 257 gallons of water. As if that wasn't enough, bleaching and then dyeing the fabric creates toxins that to some extent end up in our ecosystems.
However, another term that came up through out our reading was the term, 'regenerated fibers'. When discussing man made fibers they are usually split into two categories, synthetic fibers and regenerated fibers. "Synthetic fibers are cooked up in large vats and are made entirely from chemicals. Some of the most common synthetic fibers are the thermoplastic, petroleum-based synthetic fibers such as polyester and nylon," (10).
"Manufactured regenerated fibers are made from the chemical-induced transformation of natural polymers and basically fall into two categories: protein origin and cellulose origin. Regenerated fibers of protein origin come from plant protein (such as corn, soy, alginate, and peanut), or from animal protein (such as casein from milk). Many of the new, hot eco-friendly fabrics – like Ingeo from corn and soy from soybeans – are manufactured from proteins found in plants," (10).
Well you might say, are regenerated fibers actually eco-friendly? As I've been reading stuff, I go back and forth on this question. After all Rayon is considered a regenerated fiber and yet, Rayon is made out of processed wood pulp (and there is a lot more information on the process that is used to turn Rayon into wood pulp if you follow link 10, in terms of the ecological impact.) The simple fact is that rayon is made out of wood, as if we don't cut down enough trees for other things we have to do it for fabric as well? It seems rather redundant when there are a great many other fibers out there that can be used.
Social expectations.
Source Links:
1. http://www.fuzbaby.com/
2. http://www.nonwovens-industry.
4. http://www.teonline.com/
5. http://www.natural-
6. http://naturalhealthcare.ca/
7. http://textileacross.blogspot.
8. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
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