Why do we say we want to change the textile industry? Why do we say we want to produce fabrics in ways that are non-toxic, ethical and sustainable? What could be so bad about the fabrics we live with? The textile industry is enormous, and because of its size its impacts are profound. It uses …
We live in an environment that is full of chemicals – some which are bad for us and yet are completely natural. We don’t subscribe to the notion that man-made is absolutely bad and natural is absolutely good – botulism is completely natural and can kill you just as dead. But sometimes we adopt products …
We have all heard the stories of our “growing obesity epidemic” – especially in western nations. It’s an important national problem, and is partly responsible for our soaring health care costs. We often point to obesity as being caused by overeating, fast food, and/or sedentary lifestyles for those having a genetic predisposition to the disease. …
Alkylphenol ethoxylates (APEOs – often called alkyphenols or alkylphenyls) are surfactants which have an emulsifying and dispersing action, so they have good wetting, penetration, emulsification, dispertion, solubilizing and washing characteristics. This makes them suitable for a very large variety of applications: they’ve been used for over 50 years in a wide variety of products. In …
I went to the stores this week, looking for presents (as it’s the season), and was bombarded with slogan after slogan of companies trying to make their product stand out from the crowd. It made me think about the journey I’ve personally taken since founding O Ecotextiles – going from somebody who was totally clueless, to …
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 …
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 …
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