Last week we talked about the use of salt in textile dyeing. We always say the textile industry uses a LOT of three resources: water, chemicals and energy. The use of salt (a chemical – benign, essential for life, but a chemical nevertheless) bumps up the other two considerably. And though the salt itself is …
We’re often asked if ALL the chemicals used in textile processing are harmful. And the answer is (surprisingly maybe) no! Many chemicals are used, many benign, but as with everything these days there are caveats. Let’s look at the chemical that is used most often in the textile industry: salt. That’s right. Common table …
For hundreds of years, a “luxury” item was something that was so well produced, so exclusive, and thus so expensive, that only the few – the elite – had access and the financial means to buy it. Luxury was marketed to the rich as being a part of their social fabric, and to everyone else …
The Walt Disney Corporation, in a letter to Greenpeace in 2003, said that “the Walt Disney Company is always concerned with quality and safety”. Greenpeace decided to test that statement, so – as part of their campaign to show how dangerous chemicals are out of control, turning up in house dust, in household products, food, …
We published this blog almost two years ago, but the concepts haven’t changed and we think it’s very important. So here it is again: Although most of the current focus on lightening our carbon footprint revolves around transportation and heating issues, the modest little fabric all around you turns out to be from an industry …
I know it’s hard to imagine that the lovely fabric you’re eyeing for that chair – so soft and supple and luxurious – is just another plastic. But because 60% of all polyethylene terephalate (PET – commonly called polyester) manufactured globally is destined to be made into fibers to be woven into cloth, and because …
In January 2009, new blue uniforms were issued to Transportation Security Administration officers at hundreds of airports nationwide. [1] The new uniforms – besides giving officers a snazzy new look – also gave them skin rashes, bloody noses, lightheadedness, red eyes, and swollen and cracked lips, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, the …
OEcotextiles 