In the 1980’s, producers of eco-friendly textiles generally worked under the umbrella of organic food associations. However, they found that the food association was impractical for textile producers because although the growing and harvesting of food and fiber crops were similar, the processing of fibers in preparation to make fabric varied widely. The organic food …
Fabric might be the only product I can think of which is known by its component parts, like cotton, silk, wool. These words usually refer to the fabric rather than the fiber used to make the fabric. We’ve all done it: talked about silk draperies, cotton sheets. There seems to be a disassociation between the …
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 …
For millennia mankind depended on the natural world to supply its fiber needs. But scientists, as a result of extensive research, were able to replicate naturally occurring animal and plant fibers by creating fibers from synthetic chemicals. In the literature, it is often noted that there are three kinds of man-made fibers: those made by …
I was going to go on to other subjects, but just saw in the Seattle Times that the whale that washed up on a West Seattle beach last month was discovered to have 3.2 lbs. of garbage in its belly – including 20 plastic bags and 37 other kinds of plastic (read entire article here.) …
In Plastics, Part 1 (last week’s post; click here to read it) I tried to give a summary of why plastics are not such a good thing. The Plastic Pollution coalition has a list of basic concepts about plastic. Click here to read the expanded version: Plastic is forever Plastic is poisoning our food chain …
Philosopher George Carlin once said, “Man is only here to give the planet something it didn’t have: Plastic.” And man has done well: plastic is ubiquitous in our world today and the numbers are growing. We produce 20 times more plastic today than we did 50 years ago. The production and use of …
It looks like the plastic bottle is here to stay, despite publicity about bisphenol A and other chemicals that may leach into liquids inside the bottle. Plastic bottles (which had been used for some kind of consumer product) are the feedstock for what is known as “post consumer recycled polyester”. Recycled polyester, also called rPET, …
Synthetic fibers are the most popular fibers in the world with 65% of world production of fibers being synthetic and 35% natural fibers. (1) Fully 70% of that synthetic fiber production is polyester. There are many different types of polyester, but the type most often produced for use in textiles is polyethylene terephthalate, abbreviated PET. …
Is it true, as one of the leading fabric distributors says of its “green” fabrics made of recycled polyester, that after “years of enjoyable use, these fabrics are recyclable?” Does buying that fabric really help reduce our dependence on a non renewable resource and lessen the burden that plastic is inflicting on our environment? I’d …
OEcotextiles 