The only two ways to make fashion more fit for future are
- produce and consume LESS
- produce and consume BETTER
There are no other miracles that would reduce the impact of fashion and our consumption on this planet.
In order to consume BETTER we need to know the impact that the different materials have on land use, chemical use and the diversity of species. The latest report issued by the United Nations on Fashion and Land is an extremely helpful source of information and understanding.
You can download the full report here.
”The only two ways to make fashion fit for future are to produce and consume LESS
Martina Gleissenebner-TeskeyEcologist & Model, Initiator of walk4future
and to produce and consume BETTER
The most important facts we have summarized here for your quick overview:
Cotton is the most used natural fibre in the world and the second most produced fibre in the textile industry. The fabric is comfortable, breathable and hard-wearing.
Yet its cultivation comes at a cost to the land: large-scale cotton cultivation
- depletes the water resources of drier regions,
- the industry depends heavily on chemical fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides.
Organic Cotton is NO real alternative because even though it abstains from chemicals it usually uses even more land than normal cotton production.
Wool
Wool enjoys the image of a natural and environmentally friendly material. The reality is, however, not that straight forward. If not produced sustainably, these are the negative effects of wool production:
- Overgrazing
- Deforestation
- Water and soil pollution
- Loss of biodiversity
- High emissions of methane
i.e., Mongolia: 24,6 Million goats live in mongolia, this is 8 times the human population, leading to 70% degradation of pastureland.
Plus: blending wool and synthetics – as in most clothing items made from wool – makes those items impossible to recycle and thus puts them into landfills.
A possible alternative: Camel Wool
Camels present an interesting alternative to other animals as they are perfectly adapted to arid environments. They are natural foragers that can subsist on a wider variety of plants, little water and on land that is not used for conventional agriculture.
Camel wool is warm and waterproof and could therefore be a grwoing segment of wool products.
Linen and Hemp
If farmed carefully, plant-based fibres like flax (the basis for linen) and hemp can be more environmentally sustainable than cotton, wool or synthetics. Clothes made with these fibres are quick to dry, durable and biodegradable. They might, however, also be a bit coarse or prone to wrinkling. That’s why certain modern fits are not feasible with these kinds of fibres.
More advantages:
- Flax and hemp are both carbon sink crops, meaning that they absorb more carbon than they release into the atmosphere.
- They are both naturally pest-resistent, thus needing less chemicals.
- They have short growth cycles, making them ideal mix-crops to grow between growth cycles of other crops
- Hemp is additionally antibacterial, thermoregulating and highly resistant.
Wood-based Fibres
Man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs), such as viscose, lyocell, model, acetate and cupro, have received increasing attention as more environmentally friendly alternatives to cotton or synthetics. Cellulose, a chief part of the cell walls of plants, is extracted from the pulp of trees, such as beech, birch, eucalyptus, fir and poplar, or from bamboo. Fabric made from these fibres is often soft, breathable and absorbent.
The problem:
Not sustainably managed forest sources. Amongst the risks are:
- deforestation
- soil erosion
- loss of soil fertility
- biodiversity loss
- climate change through the release of carbon stored in trees and soils
However:
if managed sustainably, the forests can maintain or even enhance their biodiversity, make the forest ecosystems resilient and preserve soil and water quality. It takes less land, and generally no irrigation or fertilizer, to produce a ton of wood-based fibre which are key advantages over, for example, cotton.
Further, MMCFs can also be made from non-wood/bamboo materials such as waste textiles, agricultural food waste or other plant-based materials.
Oranges and Co.
These fibres are usually called “Next Generation Materials” and are mostly in the stage of research and small scale production.
The basis for this kind of new materials are the byproducts of the global agri-food sector such as fruit peel, seed oil, plant leaves and biogas. They can be used to make man-made cellulosic fibres (MMCFs) from material that would otherwise have been burned or gone to waste.
Oranges: the Italian company Orange Fibre turns orange waste into a silk-like fabric. The citrus cellulose has also already been incorporated into a lyocell fabric.
Hemp seed oil, flaxseed oil, pineapple leaves, banana trees, rice straw and sugarcane bark: the US company Circular Systems claims waste from these six crops could yield more than 250 million tons of fibre each year, which is more than current global fibre demand.
Coffee Ground Fibre: Taiwanese company SingTex combines leftover coffee grounds with polyester from recycles plastic bottles since 2009.
Next Gen Materials not mentioned in the UN report:
MIRUM®: From US company Natural Fibre Welding, a plastic-free alternative to leather, made from natural rubber, plant oils and waxes, natural pigments, and minerals. Made with NFW’s patented biocurative—a nontoxic, plant-based alternative to conventional curing systems.
HyphaLite (TM): is a product by ISA Tantecs’ COSM division which focusses on the development of next gen materials. It is a 100 % biobased, biodegradable* and composable* material made from certified natural latex, FSC-certified regenerated cellulose fibers and contains mushrooms.
Synthetics
Synthetic fibre and fabric starting in the mid-1990s has enabled the emergence of fast fashion, with cheap clothing produced for the mass-market and styled according to the latest trends. Today, more than two thirds of all clothes produced are made from synthetic fibres, such as polyester or polyamide (nylon), which are plastics derived from oil and gas.
- 87% of the fibre used for clothing is landfilled or incinerated.
- EU consumers discard about 5.8 million tons textiles annually around 11 kg per person – of which about two thirds consist of synthetic fibres.
- 9% of the annual microplastic losses to oceans is due to the textile sector (synthetic fibres).
There is no single solution to the multifaceted problem of synthetic fibres. But the most important ones are stated above:
- produce and consume LESS
- produce and consume BETTER ALTERNATIVES
