Katherine Martinko is an expert in sustainable living. She holds a degree in English Literature and History from the University of Toronto.

Every piece of clothing has an impact on the environment, but the big question is how much of an impact? Shoppers concerned about the entire life cycle of their clothing should learn about the production process that goes into making fabrics and where they end up after use, as some are harder on the planet than others. The following guide to fabrics is hardly comprehensive, but it’s a good introduction to points worth considering next time you’re out shopping.

Linen is a plant-based fabric made from flax which can be grown on rough terrain that’s unsuitable for food production. It can be cultivated and processed without chemicals, though this is more commonly found in Europe and less so in China. Summer Edwards, the knowledgeable voice behind sustainable fashion blog Tortoise & Lady Grey, writes:

Cotton is a natural plant-based fiber used in clothing, furniture, and other textile blends, such as rayon and synthetics. It is a durable, breathable, and highly versatile fabric. It is also biodegradable, which is a huge plus, considering the damage being caused by synthetic fabrics. More on that below.

Cotton, however, uses a tremendous amount of water (almost 3 percent of global water use), pesticides (7 percent of all chemicals used for agriculture in the U.S.), and arable land (2 percent globally).  In other words, it’s a resource hog. Organic cotton can improve the chemical effect, but it tends to require more land because crop yields decrease.

If you’re comfortable with the fact that wool is an animal product, this could be an environmentally friendly option. Wool is tough, wrinkle-resistant, resilient (which means good at retaining its original shape), and it can absorb signifiantly more moisture than cotton and other materials before feeling damp. It holds colorful dyes easily, without use of chemicals.

Wool can replace many of the water-resistant synthetics and polyester fleeces that feature prominently in outdoor gear without fear of microfiber shedding – which, one could argue, wreaks havoc for wildlife down the food chain, despite being vegan.

The biggest issue with wool is the methane emissions from burping sheep. Over 60 percent of wool’s carbon footprint comes from the sheep themselves, as opposed to other fabric industries whose larger emissions hail from the fabric production process. These sheep, however, are usually raised on non-arable land.

These man-made fabrics are made from cellulose. In the case of modal, the cellulose comes from softwood trees, and viscose rayon is usually bamboo. While the raw crop is biodegradable, the chemicals required to transform it into fabric, including carbon disulfide, are unsafe. The New York Times explains:

The source of cellulose is also questionable. The fabric for rayon clothes made in China likely comes from countries where old-growth rainforests are being destroyed to make way for bamboo, planted specifically for textile manufacturing.

If the fabric is processed mechanically, rather than chemically, it has a much smaller impact. This is called ‘bamboo linen’ but it’s harder to find and more expensive.

Polyester clothing is very popular. People like it for its stretchiness, durability, and comfort, but it’s important to remember that it’s a plastic manufactured from crude oil (an energy-intensive process). Even though some manufacturers are adding recycled polyester, often sourced from plastic bottles, to their fabrics, these have the same environmental repercussions as new polyester, which researchers are only just starting to understand.

What we know now is that every wash releases plastic microfibers into waterways and these persist indefinitely, contaminating lakes and oceans and getting ingested by animals and, indirectly, by humans. The New York Times writes:

A good quick intro to the microfiber pollution problem is "The Story of Microfibers" from The Story of Stuff.

Choose organic fabrics whenever possible. These are more expensive, which means you’ll likely buy less – but that’s a good thing, too. We need to break free from the fast fashion mentality that encourages rapid turnaround times on trends and a quasi-disposable attitude toward clothes.

Fashion bloggers Ellie and Elizabeth at Dress Well Do Good share the following advice:

Or, as Carrie Bradshaw once said, never buy anything that’s less than fabulous. Then you know you’ll wear it over and over again.

Moawad, Hassan, et al. "Retting and Degumming of Flax Using Biotechnology Eco-Friendly Approach." Egyptian Journal of Chemistry, vol. 62. no. 11, 2019, pp. 2033-2045, doi:10.21608/ejchem.2019.9571.1641

Daria, Marczak, et al. "Characteristics of Biodegradable Textiles used in Environmental Engineering: A Comprehensive Review." Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 268, no. 20, 2020, doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122129

Safaya, Sameer, et al. "Toward Sustainable Water Use in the Cotton Supply Chain." Water Footprint Network, 2016.

Naylor, Geoffrey RS. "Measurement of the Dynamic Moisture Buffering Potential of Fabrics." Textile Research Journal, vol. 89, no. 5, 2019, pp. 739-747., doi:10.1177/0040517518755784

Peri, Pablo L., et al. "Carbon Footprint of Lamb and Wool Production at Farm Gate and the Regional Scale in Southern Patagonia." Sustainablility, vol. 12, no. 8, 2020, doi.org/10.3390/su12083077

Wiedemann, S.G., et al. "Resource Use and Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Three Wool Production Regions in Australia." Journal of Cleaner Production, vol. 122, 2016, pp. 121-132., doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.025

"Preliminary Study of Carbon Disulfide Discharges from Cellulose Products Manufacturers." Environmental Protection Agency, 2011.

Xu, Qiu-Fang, et al. "Rapid Bamboo Invasion (Expansion) and its Effects on Biodiversity and Soil Processes." Global Ecology and Conservation, vol. 21, 2020, p. e00787, doi:10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00787

Ziajahromi, Shima, et al. "Impact of Microplastic Beads and Fibers on Waterflea (Ceriodaphnia dubia) Survival, Growth, and Reproduction: Implications of Single and Mixture Exposures." Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 51, no. 22, 2017, pp. 13397-13406, doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b03574

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