Synthetic fibers – not good for you, baby or environment

Facts and environment concern (Fight Climate Change from Your Closet)

Polyester is a long plastic fiber, more precisely a polyethylene teraphthalate, or PET fiber. The same plastic used to make disposable drink bottles. But again we ask, how does this constitute an environmental hazard? Well the ethylene in PET comes from crude oil, like the kind they dig up in the Alberta oil sands, releasing over 23 million tons of CO2 annually in the process. The other base component, naphthalene is made from coal tar.

The other synthetic fibres aren’t much better. Nylon is made directly from coal, and spandex, like polyester has its heritage in crude oil. Then there are the “manufactured fibres” like rayon (aka viscose). These are not considered synthetic by the US Federal Trade Commission, since the starting ingredient is cellulose. In a nutshell, that means wood pulp. In processing the pulp it’s exposed to caustic soda, sulphuric acid, and carbon disulfide (which has been shown to cause neural disorders in workers at rayon manufacturers).

So far, I’m not inspired to put any of these things on my body let alone near my baby, how about you?

So in protest we turn to natural fibres, the most obvious being cotton, which is certainly better. Well, it’s true that cotton is natural; all that happens to manufacture it is to grow the crop, harvest the pods and clean and spin the fibres. Fairly easy on the planet, by the sounds of it. But there is a problem: the chemicals and resources required to grow cotton conventionally. According to the USGS, cotton fields require up to 12 kg of pesticides per hectare, which accounts for one third of the world’s total pesticide use. What’s more, according to waterfootprint.org the production of cotton worldwide takes 107 Billion cubic metres of groundwater per year. That works out to about 1 cubic metre per pound of cotton product, and another half of a cubic metre of water gets polluted in the process.

The Answer?
So what is the answer? Well, organic cotton, to start. Organic farming uses no pesticides, and no synthetic fertilizers, and while irrigation is still practiced, crops are rotated to maintain soil fertility, consequently, the soil retains more water. Even better, choose clothing made with other fibres. Hemp, bamboo and soy are all much less intensive to produce, while still making fabulous EcoFashions!

Bamboo a problem too?

Although there is new evidence that bamboo is not so good either, this is the view of Lotus Organics, who in their usual full and frank style haveinvestigated the industry and presented their finding on their informative Organic Clothing Blog. It is always a great read for anyone with an interest in the greening of the rag trade. None more so than their current peek at bamboo. Michael Lackman of Lotus concludes, “The growing of bamboo is environmentally friendly but the manufacturing of bamboo into fabric raises environmental and health concerns because of the strong chemical solvents used to cook the bamboo plant into a viscose solution that is then reconstructed into cellulose fiber for weaving into yarn for fabric.”

Oko Tex and ISO 140001

ISO 140001 and Oeko-Tex standards, while useful in their spheres of influence (management and human health respectively) do not, on their own, indicate sustainable textile practices , but they are certainly a very helpful tool. When buying nursing bras its worth noting that the Anita bra is Oeko-Tex (but it at www.figleaves.com). For baby clothes you can by it at Marshalls, TJ Maxx and kohls you just have to search a little. Often you can recognise it by the cute little hangers it comes with, cotton or hemp hangers. They have sale on the stuff at Kohls, if there is anything left that is (I have been there so…).