textile fibers

Textile Fiber Guide: Revealing the climate impact of your clothes

What are you wearing today? And no, we don’t mean jeans and a shirt. What textile fiber are you wearing? It may sound like a strange question, but all cloth materials comprise fibers. They can be natural or man-made, so-called synthetic fibers. And as you might have guessed, the synthetic ones can be real climate crooks.

But what might surprise you is that some natural fibers can be just as bad for the environment.
Are you ready to take your shopping know-how to the next level and learn more about the fibers that make up the clothes you know and love?

Synthetic fibers 

Most synthetic fibers that we use today are made from petroleum, just like plastic. Yes, this means that many of the clothes you wear are made from fossil fuels, are non-biodegradable, and end up in either landfills or the ocean. Since they originate from petroleum, synthetic textiles emit a lot of microplastics when they’re washed.

It’s estimated that approximately 35% of all microplastics released into the ocean each year originate from washing synthetic textiles! On the upside, synthetic textiles are durable, stretchy, and don’t wrinkle as easily as natural fabrics.

Polyester 

The most popular textile fiber today is polyester, and it makes up about half of all fiber production worldwide. It emerged during the 1970s and quickly gained popularity since it’s durable, doesn’t wrinkle, and is easy to clean. It is, however, made from petroleum, and its production uses a lot of chemicals and causes toxic by-products that pollute both water systems and the air we breathe.

And the adverse effects on the environment don’t end with the production stage of this textile fiber. Polyester contains vast amounts of microplastics, which are released into the water when we wash it. These microplastics eventually make their way into the ocean, where they’re consumed by fish and other wildlife.

Through this cycle, the microplastics finally return to us whenever we eat seafood. A polyester garment may lose up to 0.5% of its mass in a single laundry load, and washing a load of polyester (or polyamide and acrylic) clothes can emit up to 700 000 microplastics.

Have we thrown enough numbers at you to make you think again when buying a brand-new polyester garment? Today you can buy garments, such as swimwear, from recycled PET bottles instead. A much better alternative, if you ask us.

Polyamide/Nylon 

The next petroleum-based textile fiber up for scrutinizing is polyamide or nylon, as it’s also known. It’s actually the first fabric made entirely in a lab and became available around World War II, where its durability and ability to stretch were beneficial in military clothes and stockings.

For those same reasons, you’ll mainly find polyamide in activewear and swimwear today. The environmental impact of polyamide is like polyester, and like polyester, it emits large amounts of microplastics when washed.

Acrylic 

Acrylic is a synthetic textile fiber that has given wool a run for its money. It’s commonly used for knitting yarns for sweaters and socks, as well as carpets and blankets. Properties such as high elasticity, color brilliancy, and, as with the other synthetics, ease of washing have made it very popular.

Like polyester and polyamide, acrylic fibers are made from fossil fuels, and its energy-intensive manufacturing combined with toxic chemicals make its environmental impact quite severe. 

Natural fibers 

Let’s bid microplastics adieu and move on to textile fibers made from natural sources such as plants and animals. The main pro with natural fibers is that, well, they’re natural. So, no fossil fuels are necessary to provide the raw material. On the other hand, they are less durable, wrinkle easily, and may shrink.

Cotton 

Cotton is the most profitable non-food crop globally and is used in about half of all textile fibers. Its fibers are strong, breathable, and dye absorbent, making it widely considered one of the most comfortable textile materials. It does, however, wrinkle pretty quickly, which makes it popular to combine with polyester.

The environmental impact of cotton production is extensive. Although it’s a natural textile fiber, the industry is fraught with over-use of fertilizers, pesticides, and intensive water use. This has severe impacts on soil and water quality, as well as local biodiversity and human health.

As with all crops, going organic drastically improves cotton’s climate impact. Organic cotton can reduce:

  • Greenhouse gas emissions by almost 50%;
  • Acidification (pollution that reduces pH levels) of land and water by 70%;
  • Water consumption by over 90%; and
  • Energy consumption by over 60%.

So remember, cotton isn’t necessarily environmentally friendly just because it’s made from a natural source. And by choosing a pair of jeans made from organic cotton instead of traditional cotton, you can save over 2000 liters of water!

Wool 

Wool is a natural textile fiber sourced from animals, most commonly sheep and other species such as goats (cashmere & mohair), rabbits (angora), alpacas, and llamas.

Depending on the type of wool, there are significant differences in its environmental impact, so we’ll focus on sheep here. Wool isn’t the most popular fabric globally; it only makes up around 1% of the global textile fibers market.

Wool processing consumes considerable energy, but most greenhouse gas emissions associated with wool production come from the farming stage. Like cows, sheep cause methane emissions, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Deforestation can also occur to clear land for grazing, and there is always animal cruelty to consider.
There are several benefits with wool as a fabric, predominately that it can absorb a lot of moisture and keep you warm in cold climates. It also has a long lifespan, needs to be washed at lower temperatures, is recyclable, biodegradable, and since it’s protein-based, it doesn’t emit any nasty microplastics.

Linen 

Linen is one of the oldest textile fibers we still use today; its long history stretches back to ancient Egyptians! Although the fabric itself doesn’t stretch, it’s well-appreciated in hot and humid climates since it’s both breathable and dries quickly.

It’s made from flax fibers, which generally have a low environmental impact compared with cotton, but it largely depends on how much fertilizers are used to grow the flax. If you have the option, go for organic linen that isn’t intensively dyed, as the dyeing process releases many toxic pollutants.

Silk 

Like linen, silk (or the queen of textiles as it’s called) is one of the oldest textile fibers we know of, its origins dating back to the emergence of China as one of the great civilizations. And it’s undoubtedly the most exclusive textile covered here, as many associate silks with luxuriousness and elegance.

It’s one of few natural textile fibers whose remarkable properties can compete with synthetics, except for its durability, as it’s a rather sensitive fabric. More practically, though, it’s a fabric that can keep you cool when it’s warm and warm when it’s cool.

Silk comes from an insect fiber produced by silkworms. These domesticated silkworms are fed mulberry plants, and when the worms have eaten their fill, they begin producing a liquid protein that hardens into a cocoon.

Under natural circumstances, a moth would eventually emerge, but here is where the slightly more unethical aspect of silk production comes in. In order to harvest the silk, the silkworm within the cocoon is killed. Unlike synthetics, silk doesn’t require much processing, so it has a considerably less environmental impact. And again, no microplastics!

Man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCFs) 

Alright, we began by stating that there are two types of fibers. But there may be a third, a hybrid between natural and synthetic fibers: a semi-synthetic fiber. Man-made cellulosic fibers (MMCFs) contain cellulose, an organic compound found in a plant’s cell walls. There are several MMCFs, and the market is booming, but the three main ones are lyocell, viscose/rayon, and modal.

MMCFs typically originate from wood and bamboo and undergo a conversion process to turn cellulose into textile fibers. This is also the main environmental impact of MMCFs, as converting the wood into textile fibers can be very polluting, requiring large doses of chemicals.

Deforestation also needs to be considered since we might need to clear natural forests to make room for plantations for MMCFs. There are some differences between the different MMCFs, though, in terms of environmental impact. Lyocell is considered top of the class in terms of environmental performance.

Unlike the other MMCFs, it’s made in a closed-loop system, which ensures that chemicals are recycled and don’t end up in wastewater streams. If lyocell doesn’t ring any bells, you might have heard of the company Lenzing’s Tencel. It’s a lyocell textile fiber that has gotten quite popular and gets praised for its environmental performance.

The pros of MMCFs such as lyocell, viscose/rayon, and modal are that they’re sourced from renewable resources such as wood and bamboo. On the downside, the industry can cause deforestation and entails heavy use of chemicals that can leak into water systems. And if you’d have to choose one, lyocell is generally your best bet for textile fibers.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all the textile fibers used in the fashion industry today, but they are some of the most common that provide a good starting point if you’re interested in more sustainable clothing. We hope you feel inspired to check the tag when you’re about to make your next purchase. Polyester or Lyocell? Cotton or Linen? Decisions, decisions…And remember, the three R’s of recycling apply here too:

  • Reduce,
  • Reuse,
  • Recycle.

The best thing you can do for the climate is always to not buy more new clothes. Make your old clothes last as long as they can by treating them with care. Of course, wear and tear are unavoidable at a certain point, so try to mend them if you can. And if a garment is beyond saving, recycle the textile or upcycle it. An old linen shirt might make a lovely hairband and a couple of dishcloths.

Sources:  

Acrylic fibres | SpringerLink 

Cellulosics – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics 

Cellulosics | Textile Exchange 

Cotton Fiber – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics 

Cotton | Industries | WWF  

Cradle to gate environmental impact assessment of acrylic fiber manufacturing | SpringerLink 

Environmental Impact Analysis of Flax Fibre Cultivation for Composite Reinforcement | DiVA 

Environmental impact of textile and clothes industry | EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service 

Environmental impacts associated with the production, use, and end-of-life of a woollen garment | SpringerLink 

Global Market Study on Wool: Industry Focusing on Research and Development as Demand Continues to Wane | Persistence Market Research 

History of Linen Textile | History of Clothing 

Organic Cotton Round Table |  Textile Exchange  

Polyamide | Textile Exchange 

Polyester | Textile Exchange 

Recycled Polyester Round Table | Textile Exchange  

Silk Production – an overview | ScienceDirect Topics 

Textila material | Naturskyddsföreningen  

Textile Dyes: Dyeing Process and Environmental Impact | INTECH 

The environmental impact of wool | The Ecologist  

Wool Sustainability | IWTO | International Wool Textile Organisation 

Workshop on Microplastics from Synthetic Textiles: Knowledge, Mitigation, and Policy | OECD 

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