Patty and I have applied for a grant from Mission: Small Business, which is awarding $250,000 to up to 12 small businesses around the country. Sponsored by Chase and Living Social, we have until June 30 to get at least 250 people to vote for us. Please vote for us! It’s really easy, here’s how: 1. …
I love lists – you know, all those “best of” lists – movies, books, toxic chemicals. Having a list makes it easy for us to tick off those bad chemicals that nobody wants to live with. And in the building industry there have been a proliferation of lists which identify chemicals of concern: the Perkins & …
Since I’ve managed to figure out how to embed videos in the blog, I can’t seem to help showing you some of the most electrifying clips I’ve seen. This is one of them – please watch it! Filmmaker Penelope Jagessar Chaffer was curious about the chemicals she was exposed to while pregnant: Could they affect …
Nylon is a synthetic polymer called a polyamide because of the characteristic monomers of amides in the backbone chain. Polyamides are also naturally occurring – proteins such as wool and silk are also polyamides. We commonly see two basic types of nylon used in fabrics: nylon 6 and nylon 6,6: Nylon 6,6: Two different molecules …
People like to buy leather furniture because of leather’s durability (it’s advertised to last a lifetime) – even though it demands a bit of attention to keep it looking its best. Manufacturers also like to portray leather (perhaps because of its high price) as conveying luxury and sophistication. Leather has been used practically forever – …
Last week we explored using biomass as fuel, and some of the implications in doing that. Previously we looked at using biomass in the world of fabrics and furnishings, which include the new biotech products polylactic acid (PLA) (DuPont’s Ingeo and Sorona fibers) and soy-based foam for upholstery (click here and here to see our …
Global climate change is the major environmental issue of current times. Evidence for global climate change is accumulating and there is a growing consensus that the most important cause is humankind’s interference in the natural cycle of greenhouse gases. (Greenhouse gases get their name from their ability to trap the sun’s heat in the earth’s …
Textile Exchange, which administers the new Global Recycle Standard, has introduced what it says is a “minor but important” change in GRS version 2.1, according to the April/May 2012 issue of Ecotextile News. (If you’re wondering what the Global Recycle Standard is all about, please see our blog post on the subject: click here .) The …
I just saw this powerful video based on a recent editorial by Bill McKibben in the Washington Post on May 23, 2011. Narritation is by Stephen Thomson of Plomomedia.com, who accompanies the piece with striking footage of the events Bill wrote about.
From last week’s blog post, we discussed how bio based plastics do indeed save energy during the production of the polymers, and produce fewer greenhouse gasses during the process. Yet right off the bat, it could be argued that carbon footprints may be an irrelevant measurement, because it has been established that plants grow more …
OEcotextiles 