Hey guys, here are some photos from yesterday's map event. the red line toward china is getting thicker and thicker!!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
photos from map event!!
Hey guys, here are some photos from yesterday's map event. the red line toward china is getting thicker and thicker!!
Eco-Friendly Fibers
One of the questions that Candace and I researched before setting up the table is, what exactly are Eco-Friendly fibers? Eco-Friendly seems to be a term that a great many people throw around, in order to make themselves sound good. It's rather like the word sustainable, people throw it around as well and yet no one seems to truly have any idea of what these words mean. I admit, I've been guilty of doing such things as well.
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:
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/
FA Table Event, Day 1
So, yesterday Candace and I set up a table in the FineArt's building on campus and started harassing people. It is really quiet amusing to watch people as they walk past a table. They either look at you or try and act like they don't see you at all so they don't have to interact. Then there are those who make eye contact and then simply keep walking. Or those who make eye contact and then feel as if they have to stop and talk to you even though you can tell that they really don't want to.
It was great, when you asked people if you could look at their tags, they look at you like, "You want to what?", "I have to do what?" And then some people get really into it and start seeing how many tags they could get to without stripping. I think it would've been fun to make a mobile changing room as people were hesitant to walk down to the bathroom. *laughs*
We decided to go ahead and ask people if they got the article of clothing new, used or if it was a gift as well. It was interesting to see how emberased some people got as they kept saying, 'new' to every answer for three or for pieces of clothing. Then other people were just like, 'whatever', I got it new so what. Still over all there were few people who could actually come out and tell you what their clothing was made out of, without looking.
Over all it was an interesting experience and we plan on doing it again tomorrow morning as well as hopefully again later on in the semester. Either way we got a lot more information up on the map (though most of it is all US and Indiana related. I would really like to get more international information. One of the visitors to the table suggested that we contact the international community for information. Thus far we only have one person from outside of the US, the UK has one lonely participant.)
Anyway, we will get more pictures up soon as well as a digital version of the map (just in case the physical one ends up falling apart. *laughs* I'm trying to find a way to do a digital map that people can add to online, unfortunately I haven't found anything that will work for these purposes yet.) Also doing research for the information that we had at the table, brought up a number of interesting questions that I haven't addressed via this blog yet. So, some of that coming up soon. *cheers*
It was great, when you asked people if you could look at their tags, they look at you like, "You want to what?", "I have to do what?" And then some people get really into it and start seeing how many tags they could get to without stripping. I think it would've been fun to make a mobile changing room as people were hesitant to walk down to the bathroom. *laughs*
We decided to go ahead and ask people if they got the article of clothing new, used or if it was a gift as well. It was interesting to see how emberased some people got as they kept saying, 'new' to every answer for three or for pieces of clothing. Then other people were just like, 'whatever', I got it new so what. Still over all there were few people who could actually come out and tell you what their clothing was made out of, without looking.
Over all it was an interesting experience and we plan on doing it again tomorrow morning as well as hopefully again later on in the semester. Either way we got a lot more information up on the map (though most of it is all US and Indiana related. I would really like to get more international information. One of the visitors to the table suggested that we contact the international community for information. Thus far we only have one person from outside of the US, the UK has one lonely participant.)
Anyway, we will get more pictures up soon as well as a digital version of the map (just in case the physical one ends up falling apart. *laughs* I'm trying to find a way to do a digital map that people can add to online, unfortunately I haven't found anything that will work for these purposes yet.) Also doing research for the information that we had at the table, brought up a number of interesting questions that I haven't addressed via this blog yet. So, some of that coming up soon. *cheers*
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