Sustainability in Textiles: An Overview
Bed linens from Anna Sova Luxury Organics
Not all textiles are created equal. Some fabrics, such as polyester and nylon, which are petroleum-derived, are downright unsustainable. And although rayon is composed of wood pulp, its production is a polluting bad boy. Even ubiquitous cotton isn’t untouchable, as we’ll learn in detail in a post of its own. The Jan/Feb 2006 issue of Natural Home & Garden had this to say:
The textile industry creates a host of pollution problems. Factories discharge dyes and chemicals into waterways, and they release heat, fly ash, formaldehyde, and sulfurous and nitrous compounds into the air, thereby contributing to acid rain. Textile packaging, drums, and toxic chemicals are dumped into landfills. Even the used fabrics themselves are a problem. Many can’t be recycled because of their mixed-fiber content.
Then there is the human element to consider:
There are health hazards, too. Textile workers may suffer hearing loss from factory noise and develop byssinosis, or “brown lung,” caused by airborne cotton dust. Worker exposure to carcinogenic chemicals, especially formaldehyde, is a serious problem. For consumers, there are toxicity issues surrounding fabrics with formaldehyde (such as permanent press), flame retardants, and stain repellents. Contact dermatitis and allergic reactions to some fibers, dyes, or finishes are common consumer complaints.
To determine a textile’s environmental impact, we have to examine its entire life cycle: its source material, energy and water usage, type of emissions released during production, even the biodegradability of the finished product.
The Institute for Market Transformation to Sustainability, which provides several voluntary product-specific standards, has a rating system based on a textile’s sustainability (”sustainable,” “silver,” “gold,” or “platinum.”) During the audit process, companies can accumulate brownie points depending on their renewable-energy and energy efficiencies, their plans to reclaim the material at the end of its life, and whether the product makes use of bio-based or recycled materials. Another non-profit, BlueGreen, plans to release its own voluntary Sustainable Textile Standard that uses advancing levels of merit to measure a company’s progress toward complete sustainability—this allows an established company the latitude to switch to more-sustainable practices gradually, instead of forcing a complete overhaul that is likely to encounter greater resistance.
When a textile is labeled “organic,” it generally refers to the fiber itself, as opposed to the textile production process. Organic agriculture, which has its own third-party certification process under the auspices of the USDA, has to adhere to rigorous standards that restrict the use of pesticides or other toxic and persistent chemicals. No federal standards exist for the processing of organic raw fiber once it leaves the farm, however, or when the finished product is ready to be sold.
To bridge that gap, the Organic Trade Association developed its own set of voluntary organic-fiber processing standards, “from post-harvest handling to wet processing (including bleaching, dyeing, printing), fabrication, product assembly, storage and transportation, pest management, and labeling of finished products.” Based on evaluation criteria designed with low environmental and human health impact in mind, the standard allows only biodegradable material that isn’t known to cause cancer, genetic damage, birth defects, or endocrine disruption. Materials such as chlorine bleach, formaldehyde, some azo dyes, and plastisols are prohibited. (If all those different standards haven’t caused your head to spin yet, in March, the Organic Trade Association voted to adopt the stricter Global Organic Textile Standard, which specifies an additional labor component, by this September.)
And all this is just in the U.S. You can also get find products certified by Skal, an EU-authorized certification company from the Netherlands that holds the “EKO” trademark for sustainable textile production. Like the Organic Trade Association’s American Organic Standards for Fiber, EKO covers the entire production chain from the growth of the organic fibers to the manufacture of the final product.
Simply stated, textiles which are certified sustainable are not necessarily organically produced. Likewise, fabrics woven from organic-certified fibers may not have been processed, assembled, dyed, or printed sustainably. (Each of these phases needs to be certified for compliance with organic standards. A T-shirt made with organic cotton is therefore different from an organic cotton T-shirt.)
Many Bothans died to bring us this information.
Additional resources:
1. “Textiles for a better tomorrow,” Environmental Design & Construction
2. “Loose ends tied on organic fiber,” Sustainable Industries Journal
The Worsted Witch » Under the Canopy on TV said,
April 3, 2006 at 11:20 am
[...] The shows hosts will also tour the inside of a textile mill to see how organic fiber becomes fabric. (Ties in nicely with my previous post, no?) [...]
The Worsted Witch » Hurray for Organic Cotton: Resources said,
May 26, 2006 at 4:47 pm
[...] One downside: Because farming without toxic chemicals is by nature more labor intensive and lower in yield, and the organic certification process both demanding and costly, the price of organic cotton fiber and textiles comes at a premium, at least before increasing demand for organic cotton reaches critical mass. At the risk of sounding completely hokey, however, the higher price of organic cotton cannot compare to the much higher environmental and social cost of conventional cotton farming, which is responsible for wanton habitat destruction, contamination of surface and ground water, wildlife loss, and at least 355, 000 human deaths from accidental poisoning per year. [...]
Vanessa Victoria said,
July 29, 2006 at 9:13 am
Would like to find a wholesale supplier of organic cotton and hemp blend fabrics for our casual apparel line. Find it very difficult to contact wholesalers of organic fabric in NYC and cannot find any showrooms that represetn organic production textile mills. Would greatly appreciate all help and information caring people like you can provide. Thanks in advance.
World is Green said,
March 1, 2007 at 9:52 pm
Textiles and Eco-friendly products…
Textiles could be one of the most un-sustainable products in the world. In their entire lifecycle from growing the raw material or creating it from oil to manufacturing and selling and final disposal they can create a serious problem.
The Worsted Witch…
The Worsted Witch » Lion Brand Yarn Organic Cotton said,
April 9, 2007 at 10:48 am
[...] Still, as the Wal-Mart of yarns, Lion is providing increased sustainable-fiber access and face time to a wider clientele, which isn’t a bad thing, but don’t ask me to stretch the Wal-Mart metaphor further by going into organic-fiber standards, because it’s way too early in the a.m. to do anything more complicated than poke the metaphor. And maybe name it Squishy. But THAT’S WHERE I DRAW THE LINE. [...]