Fibers are an important topic for me. This is due to the fact that as a consumer, I like to be informed. Do you read the label before purchasing a new garment?
I always do because I have several reasons to be interested in the characteristics of the fabric I am wearing, namely:
- on how it feels when I wear it (does it keep me cool in the summer and warm in the winter or I am all sweaty in summer and shivering in the winter when wearing it)
- how I need to care for it over time (can I wash it in my washing machine or I need to wash it every time by hand or even more demanding, am I only allowed to dry clean it?) and
- how it impacts on the environment.
The fabric in our clothes is a result of several processes that the raw material undergoes. And I think it is worth learning about the origin of each of those fibers so that we can better understand sustainability and where it starts.
Let’s start!
A. Natural fibers
The name of these category is self-explanatory: they are plant or animal sourced fibers. The fact that they come from nature it does not mean that these fibers thick all the environmental, social and economic boxes to be considered a sustainable product and process.
For plant sourced natural fiber (also called natural vegan fibers) like cotton, linen or ramie, sustainable principles can be applied the moment the plant is cultivated. We have to consider environmental, social and economic concerns:
- whether or how much pesticides one uses to grow the plant to obtain cotton, linen or ramie
- how much water one needs to produce 1 kilo of fibers
- if any chemicals one uses in the extraction process
- the age of the workers in the farms
- whether their wages are fairly paid.
For the animal-sourced fibers (non-vegan natural fibers) like silk or wool, sustainable principles can be applied the moment the production process starts. In the non-vegan fibers processes, similar questions apply:
- how much chemicals one uses in the process of leather tanning,
- how much water one uses to obtain silk from silk vorms,
- but the main question here is an ethical one, namely about the animal-based raw material, namely should we even wear animal-based materials?!
Here are more details on leather. But as a take from this, vegan fashion and sustainable fashion are two intertwined yet different concepts.
B. Man-made fibers are classified as follow:
1. Synthetics fibers
These made from chemicals and derived from such fossil fuels as crude oil and coal (polyester, polyamide, acrylic, polyurethane, metallic yarns, etc.)
But as you may imagine, the sub-category synthetic fibers (polyester, polyamide, acrylic, polyurethane, metallic yarns, etc.) are not eco-friendly at all. Synthetic fibers represent over a half of all the textiles fibers in current global production. The four fibers that dominate the synthetic fibre market are nylon, polyester, acrylic and polyolefin. Synthetic fibers are a group of manmade fibres that are sourced mainly from petroleum that has been produced from crude oil.
Crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons that exists as a liquid in underground geologic formations and remains a liquid when brought to the surface. Petroleum products are produced from the processing of crude oil and other liquids at petroleum refineries, from the extraction of liquid hydrocarbons at natural gas processing plants, and from the production of finished petroleum products at blending facilities. Petroleum is a broad category that includes both crude oil and petroleum products. The terms oil and petroleum are sometimes used interchangeably.
Synthetic fibres (polyester, polyamide, acrylic, polyurethane, metallic yarns, etc.) have similar properties that make them pretty uncomfortable to be worn:
a) low moisture absorbency – this is why we sweat much more in a synthetic fiber than a natural one
b) durability – they are not biodegradable so practically living long after us
c) easy to care for as they do not need ironing most of the time and come with few washing requirements
d) cheap to procure.
They are considered the ‘fuel of fast fashion’ for these reasons, but mainly because they are cheap and it is way less cheaper to manufacture new synthetic materials garments than to recycle the ones already on the market.
2. Artificial fibers
These fibers are made from plant cellulose, regenerated from such natural sources as wood. So they come from nature and can be seen as plant fibers just like the linen and cotton, but the main difference is that they cannot be converted into fibers without chemical intervention.
The cellulose material has to be dissolved in a chemical solution to produce a pulpy viscous substance, which is then spun into fibres that can then be made into threads. The most common examples or artificial fibers are acetate and viscose – or rayon as this is the terminology used in US and UK.
3. Bio-engineered fibers
These fibers are described as a new generation of fibres where use of protein, sugars or starches as their starting point is needed (corn fiber, soya fiber, milk fiber, castor oil fiber, etc.)
So as you see, it is wrong to assume that all man-made fibers are not eco-friendly; many next-generation fibers (bio-engineered fibers) come from renewable or recycled resources; are light and durable, use clean energy sources and require little land usage or water consumption in their production, furthermore representing a low carbon footprint.
Same goes for the new generation of viscose – called lyocell – made from wood pulp – the production process of which has been labelled eco-friendly; and the lenzing modal – a type of lyocell produced only from beech trees, biodegradable and carbon free, but also durable.
I have stopped buying synthetic fibers mainly because they are extremely pollutant, but also because the garments made of these fibers are not comfortable to wear. These synthetic fibers do not keep me warm in the winter and moreover due to low moisture absorbency, my body cannot breathe in the summer in garments made of synthetic fibers. How about you?
