OEcotextiles

Indulgent yet responsible fabrics

An editorial by Nicholas Kristof was published in the February 13, 2016, issue of the New York Times entitled: “Are you a Toxic Waste Disposal Site?” We think Mr. Kristof makes some great points, so we’ve published the entire editorial below: EVEN if you’re not in Flint, Mich., there are toxic chemicals in your home. For that matter, in you.

Let’s begin our review of chemicals used in textile processing with the one chemical that is used most often and in far greater quantity than any other: salt. That’s right. Common table salt, the kind you probably use every day. But in the quantities used by this industry it becomes a monster – we’ll get …

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Our children today live in an environment that is fundamentally different from that of 50 years ago. In many ways, their world is better. In many ways, they’re healthier than ever before.  Thanks to safe drinking water, wholesome food, decent housing, vaccines, and antibiotics, our children lead longer, healthier lives than the children of any …

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Ever wonder why you buy those organic foods that cost more?  It’s always a bit of sticker shock when you see the organic and conventional side by side.   The organic strawberries may taste better, but this economy means we have to pinch every penny.  As my husband says, an apple is an apple, so why …

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I just found a website that threw me for a loop:  It’s called Sailhome (www.sailhome.org). It was started by a regular guy – a physicist living in San Francisco who was the VP of marketing for a semiconductor intellectual property company – named Ron.   Ron’s son, born almost 10 years ago, began to show signs …

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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.) …

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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 …

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Happy 40th, Earth Day!

O Ecotextiles (and Two Sisters Ecotextiles)

I remember the spring of 1970 vividly, but not  because of the first Earth Day.  I remember that  Richard Nixon was president,  Simon & Garfunkle’s  “Bridge over Troubled Waters” was playing on the radio and the Flip Wilson Show was on TV.   The academy award for best movie went to “Patton”.  (Actually I had to …

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Issues with using recycled polyester

O Ecotextiles (and Two Sisters Ecotextiles)

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, …

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Cotton and China

O Ecotextiles (and Two Sisters Ecotextiles)

Chris Wood – an independent journalist living on Vancouver Island, Canada,  wrote an article in Miller-McCune about China’s cotton problem.   Most of the information here is taken from his article.  You can read the complete article here. Clients often ask us where our fabrics and/or fibers come from because, they tell us,  they don’t want …

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