Making Better Soft Goods Choices

Have you noticed how complicated it is to know what apparel to present to those clients with a true eye towards sustainability? From cotton to synthetic fibers, textile manufacturers are using increasingly complicated chemical and industrial processes to make apparel. Of course, if you were simply managing your own closet, just buying less would be the best answer. But when you’re helping your clients choose responsibly between the four major types of fibers: Oil-based synthetics, cotton, rayon, and wool, the truth is the environmental trade-offs are so varied a definitive ranking is nearly impossible.

But, let’s take look at each, starting with the synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon that make up more than 60 percent of the global fiber market. Polyester, one of the most common fibers, is a plastic derived from crude oil, a nonrenewable resource. Extracting the oil and melting the plastic require energy. The long fibers that make up polyester thread are woven together to make fabric. There are also usage concerns that we’ve talked about before — synthetic fibers shed plastic filaments during daily wear and tear, and also in the wash. Once shed in the laundry process, the filaments can make it into sewer systems and eventually into waterways.

You might suggest the natural choice, cotton, to your clients as an alternative. But the fact is that cotton is not ALL natural. Synthetic fibers or rayon have been blended with cotton thread over time, especially when there’s a cotton shortage, or when the price of cotton is high. Cotton accounts for about three percent of global water use and requires pesticides in order to grow. According to the Department of Agriculture, seven percent of all pesticides in the United States are used on cotton. Many of those chemicals seep into the ground or run off into surface water. Even choosing organic cotton grown without pesticides is a trade-off because it uses even more water, requires more land than conventional crops, and tends to be more expensive.

Rayon is one of the earliest man-made fibers, developed from plant fibers as a substitute for silk in 1846, and first manufactured in the U.S. in 1911. It was called “artificial silk” until 1924. Most rayon today is viscose rayon, which is treated with chemicals, including carbon disulfide, which can cause serious health problems for rayon workers, including making them at greater risk for Parkinson’s disease, premature heart attack, and stroke. The good news is by the time the rayon gets to your clients, it poses no danger for their end-users. Viscose rayon has been wrongly marketed as environmentally friendly because it is derived from bamboo, but the Textiles Fiber ID Act now requires more accurate labels.

And then there’s wool. While wool might be less practical for your clients’ use, it’s probably the most sustainable of choices. Wool products have long life cycles, they tend to be washed less, and at lower temperatures. Consider it this way: Wool pretty much just requires sheep. The only sustainability concern related to sheep is the methane gas they produce in their burps. Burps? Sheep burps? I know it sounds amusing, but I’m not making this up! In fact, one study suggested that 50 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from the wool industry come from the sheep themselves.

So while the best choice of all is just making less of any of these fabrics for use as soft goods, the second choice may end up — and I’m not making this up either — a better probiotic for sheep that can reduce methane by half.

There’s still time to register for tomorrow’s Drinkware virtual tradeshow on PromoShow. I’ll be live (well, live virtually via Zoom) after lunch with a session called “True Confessions: I Don’t Really Talk About Safety With My Clients.” I’ll be offering absolution and the basics to get you started with what can be a difficult and uncomfortable subject to discuss. We won’t be talking about technical details of testing, or the 800 chemicals the State of California has decided may cause cancer in Prop65. We’ll be talking about making you comfortable with the basic discussion points, like “No product is 100 percent safe,” and “Safety should be more like knowing what time it is for your client, instead of telling them how you built the clock.” See, I told you it would be interesting! Hope to see you tomorrow!