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💠 Latest update : January 19th 2021
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Preliminary note : This article is a constant work in progress. The information displayed has changed and evolved over time, as I read more about the different topics, find better sources or observe changes. You might even find a huge "TODO" along the way for some paragraphs that need re-writing or if I feel that there's an aspect I haven't studied.
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I'm very fond of fiber art crafts: knitting, crochet, embroidery, weaving, sewing and probably spinning if I had the space to store even more fibre. All these activities share a common issue, which is a huge consumption of materials. Since I'm both in an urban environment and disabled (walking somewhere is complicated), I have to buy in online stores most of my supplies. That has quickly raised a number of ethical problems, both in social and environmental terms. That's why I've started in 2016 to look for the best I could find in both areas at the same time.
I've been through lots of tests, lots of articles reading on the web, and... lots of disappointements mostly.
So before I detail everything for the brave ones who want to read, here's the main point.
TL;DR: the whole system is rotten, acceptable solutions are really hard to find, everything has to be heavily scrutinised on a per case basis.
That said, let's dive in!
As a personal goal, I wanted to make as many of my daily life objects and clothes as possible myself. For me it's both fun and a way to learn how to create new, long lasting and mendable things. It's also a means to weigh the work put in an object differently, and evaluate our society's comfort.
In my supplies buying criteria, I chose to prioritise:
When I search for information, I mainly dig the web until I'm satisfied with what I've found. I'm a simple individual sharing some things that I think might be relevant, but I cannot in any way be a 100% certain of the information I've found, since I'm stuck at home with no means to investigate.
My search axes initially led me into two directions: exploring environmental and social labels first, and then study different types of fibres to check how good or bad they were for the environment and health. I've kept this structure along this article.
The somewhat easy solution is to look for quality labels. There is a standard that looks quite serious, named GOTS. It takes into account both environmental and social aspects for the whole production cycle of a product.
There's a search engine on the website that allows to check for a specific certified company product. Sometimes companies put a pdf of their certification on their websites, so it's possible to verify if the certificate has a match in the GOTS database. It's also possible to have a look at the expiration date of the certificates.
GOTS is probably the current fibre industry standard that has the most criteria to respect. As it could be expected, products bearing it tend to be terribly expensive.
The official GOTS standard website
The latest specification version 6.0 (2021, pdf)
This is a set of standards, which concerns the toxicity of the products involved in the production of a fibre. It's a good solution to avoid suspicious dyeing methods for example, but it certifies a lot less than GOTS. Oeko-Tex is spreading quickly, so it's now common to find it on product labels.
It's worth noting that they also have certifications regarding leather, which production also has its pollution issues.
Oeko-tex official standards page
A fibre is organic if it respects some production criteria. Since the GOTS website has a direct links to international regulations on the matter, I'll directly link to the page.
A product can be organic and shamelessly exploit workers, so it doesn't make the product clean in every aspect. Also, organic standards still differ a little from country to country, so it doesn't mean exactly the same in every part of the world (see wikipedia page below for a search starting point).
GOTS websites: organic fibre standards
Overview of existing standards and certification programmes (UN, 2003)
There is much debate around fair trade organisations. I would tend to say that it cannot be used at all to buy fibres in the hope of sustaining people around the globe, and I would advise to look thoroughly every case before buying, given it's even possible. See the article below giving an example about coffee fair trade issues.
Huffington Post: 10 Reasons Fair-Trade Coffee Doesn't Work
From what I've observed, the more business intermediaries you add, the bigger and the farther the production, the more problems and the more difficult to trace.
It's easier to say if sheep are well treated if you can visit that local family farm and actually see the animals for yourself. You'll have a better assurance that you're paying for the right thing than what any worldwide label or standard can provide.
It's also important to note that very small farms sometimes don't have the means to be certified by labels. The latter have very strong criteria which are not worth the hassle for tiny companies: lots of administrative work for a very little gain of clients. So not having a label doesn't mean that the structure has to be cast aside.
On the other end, huge companies have a whole budget dedicated to making them look clean, whether they really are or not. And sometimes they really try, but since there's a whole chain of suppliers and intermediaries working for them, they legitimely cannot themselves trace every step of what they use or buy. I tend to look for information in newspapers or their wikipedia page, to get at least an idea of the working conditions inside the structure or learn about environmental scandals. It's far from perfect, but it's a start.
The next paragraphs contain some information about several popular fibre types, ordered alphabetically.
I'm aware that this part might look a bit dry. My goal here was to check if one particular industry would tick more boxes as environmental, health and social friendly than others.
I've tried to keep it short for each fibre, but if you're only interested in some of them, you can very much skip reading about the others or even directly jump to the next part.
I'd like to mention that for every fibre, the consumer's location matters. For example, as I'm in Europe, fibres like abaca or cotton are produced very very far from me. So I have to take that transport into account to match my distance criteria.
The fibre originates from the Philippine Islands, mainly to create paper, and a little to make fibre. It's a kind of banana tree, but its fruits are not edible. From the articles I've read, the cultivation and extraction processes seem quite environmental friendly, but I haven't really found information about pesticide uses and labour conditions.
More information about the fibre and its cultivation
More illustrations on the fibre processing
TODO
Bamboo is associated in marketing with "renewable green cool fibre that could replace cotton and make everyone happy". I'm not even exaggerating.
Although is it possible to create true bamboo fibre, most of he production uses the plant to make a kind of rayon (or viscose) with it.
The transformation process includes the use of chemicals. There again, even though there are methods to recycle most of them, from what I've understood the majority of the production involves pollution.
The GOTS standard also has a specific faq for rayon made of bamboo.
https://www.global-standard.org/q-and-a#useofbamboo
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/13/bamboo.fabric
https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/how-avoid-bamboozling-your-customers
TODO
Hemp is a fibre that's been used for millenia, quite similar to linen.
The thesis below is a thorough (and readable) source of information regarding hemp for textile in Europe, from historic elements to plant size concerns.
From year to year it seems that I can see a growing number of links to companies, especially in eastern Europe, producing fabric. It's a personal feeling though, more than real statistics.
Knitting or crochet yarn references are rare, but cord and string producers can be found.
Everything seems very new and very much B2B oriented for the moment. I've found some fabric references that individuals can buy, but traceability is not good, as it is for most fabrics sold by the metre.
Linen (made from flax) shares lots of characteristics with hemp.
In Europe, flax is used in many different industries (composite materials for example), so only a fraction is used to make textile.
Since cotton is cheaper to produce, from what I've seen linen retailers tend to concentrate their marketing on good quality or luxury. This is obvious on shops selling household laundry or furniture.
There are yarn references than contain linen, sometimes mixed with cotton. However, I haven't encountered any that is GOTS certified for the moment, and most of the time the country of origin is not even specified.
Contrary to yarn, it is possible to buy GOTS certified linen fabric produced in Europe.
EU document: 2016 civil dialog on arable groups (flax and hemp are at the beginning of the paper)
The idea of making fibre out of milk is not completely new. However, processes to create it have greatly changed and improved over the years (see 1st link).
It's not really clear from what I've read, but it seems that for now most milk fibre is still produced using the same chemicals as acrylic, which is not good, see paragraph on synthetic fibres below.
There is a better way of doing it, but it's patented (Qmilk) and not that much developed.
Milk fibre is also, in my humble opinion, seeing a problem (we produce too much milk) and applying a bad solution. Our goal should be to reduce production while providing good income to milk producers, not encouraging to develop a new fibre industry out of cows, which are already a cause of greenhouse gases.
Ecoworldonline: what is milk fiber yarn (not many sources in the article, but good summary overall)
More brand names and information
Milk production issues (article from an organisation funded by the EU)
Journal of animal science: methane emissions from cattle
Ramie is a kind of nettle that grows in Asia. It has been used as a fibre for millenia in China, and has various uses, among them making textile. From what I've read, it seems to have some of its processing and properties similar to hemp or linen. However, ramie also needs to go through another process called degumming, which often leads to heavy use of chemicals. Other methods of degumming seem possible (1st link), but are very expensive (2nd link, page 279).
On social aspects, I've mainly found that the cultivation is labour intensive (3rd link, page 36) and that some of it is also cultivated in India.
Ramie-degumming methodologies: A short review
Exploration of Profitability in The Cultivation of Ramie
An overview of the plant and its cultivation, with pictures
Stinging nettle can also be used to make a fibre similar to hemp or linen, but its industry seems more or less non-existent, due to its low fibre content. Some information can nevertheless be found here and there (see below).
https://nettle-fibre-company.com/en/
If you have a garden (I don't) and feel adventurous, some enthusiasts do harvest and spin stinging nettle to make yarn, so you might want to drop a few keywords in a search engine to have a look and maybe, give it a try.
Sometimes online shops may have misleading names regarding nettle or ramie -- for example, in french both are called "ortie" --, so it might be a good idea to check whether it's one or the other (99% of the time it's ramie), since they don't grow in the same parts of the world at all and don't involve the same processing.
TODO
Some brands have started a few years back to introduce recycled yarns. it's not very common (yet?), and for the time being there seems to be two parallel trends. The first one is to loudly advertise about the recycled component and make the consumer pay way more than for a non-recycled equivalent. The second one is to have a half-synthetic and half-natural blend. Since synthetic yarns cause problems (see dedicated paragraph), I'm not sure this is a good solution either.
It is possible to find some recycled yarns that are a 100% cotton and not too expensive, but I haven't been very convinced by the quality either, what I've tried tended to pill a lot and show signs of wear after two times in the washing machine.
One of the current problems seems that there are vast quantities of blended fibres (for example, cotton + spandex) that are difficult to recycle precisely because they are blended. Scientific articles can be found about innovative processes to separate them, but there's a gap between science and a profitable industry, so we probably need time to let these technologies develop. It's not even sure that making yarn for individuals is the best way to recycle fibres. Finally, there's no guarantee that recycling won't use tons of chemicals and energy, so... wait and see!
An article from the Guardian (2015) summing up some of the issues.
A BBC article about clothes and fibre recycling.
Silk is a very old fibre with a rich and interesting history. Since it's expensive to make, it's recently often been replaced by alternatives such as rayon, but it's still used for an additional luxury and comfort.
It is made from the cocoon of some moth species. In the traditional way of making silk, the pupa is killed inside the cocoon, which is then reeled to make fibre. A few years back, another way of making silk called "Ahimsa silk", has been largely promoted to address concerns about pupa killing. It also seems to have been patented (1st link). I've added some information about it below, which tend to show that moths end up being killed either way.
DNA India: The man behind Ahimsa silk
A critical article about Ahimsa (peace) silk.
(The website above also contains detailed articles about silk worms breeding with lots of pictures, very interesting.)
These fibres are interesting in numerous aspects. They avoid exploiting animals and plants, they're cheap to produce ni huge quantities, and have some properties that natural fibres cannot provide.
However, they cause lots of issues. First of all, they require oil extraction, which is not the most environment friendly industry and it's also a non-renewable resource.
They're also non-biodegradable, it's mentioned more or less everywhere on articles about them, although it's really hard to get figures on how long exactly we're talking about.
The Lycra Company's Position on Biodegradable and Compostable Fibers for Apparel
... I make a quick side line about biodegradation: the topic in itself is complex and contains potentially misleading vocabulary, so if a synthetic fibre is ever labeled biodegradable, it will have to be seriously checked against lots of confusing notions and practices.
http://www.lesswaste.org.uk/recycle/compostable-degradable-biodegradable-and-oxodegradable-plastics/
That said, back to the fibres.
They are heavily suspected to be very damaging to marine life, because of micro plastics release in water streams after washing them.
EU publication: Fibres from polyester clothes could be more damaging marine life than microbeads
There's also concern about health. Acrylic is made with acrylonite, which seems to be recognised to be toxic and to some extent it may increase the risk of cancers, though it's really hard to find information on the latter (link 1). In any case, workers in this industry are potentially directly at risk from the toxic effects, and it's typically an industry where it's difficult to trace as an individual the origin of the acrylic and the working conditions in the fibre making.
World health organisation paper about acrylonitrile
More information about acrylonitrile's toxicity
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/11/nyregion/nail-salon-workers-in-nyc-face-hazardous-chemicals.html
Finally, recycling them is not an easy task, see the paragraph on recycled fibres.
To conclude, I would first like to cite the following article, which more or less sums up the same kind of information as I do.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmenvaud/1952/report-files/195206.htm
Then I would simply add that synthetics fibres are a problem because they are used at a massive scale with little to no regard to what happens once they're sold to a customer. They are useful, especially for technical uses, but probably not as everyday wear on cheaply produced garments that end up in landfills.
I haven't really investigated too far from my own location, so I can only write a bit about western continental europe. You can assume all I say about the sector's economy below is about this region only.
For european based crafters, wool is probably the easiest fibre to trace from animal to skein. There's a relatively low number of GOTS certified producers, but small farms owners can be contacted easily, they often post pictures of the farm, and sometimes it's even possible to visit the structure. There are lots of fibre specific businesses that sell online, so with a bit of web digging there are lots of possibilities. Prices can be high though, but that cannot really be avoided.
Quite often, raw wool is sent to a spinning and dyeing entreprise before it's transferred to retailers or back to the farm for selling. It can be a good idea to check if they're far, and whether dyes and labour conditions in those intermediaries are ok as well. It's worth noting though that there are very few of these companies left, and that farms sometimes cannot afford to do this aspect of the work themselves. Special equipment might even not be present in the country at all, forcing farms to send fibres abroad. The wool industry has declined in the region over the last 30 years, and most of the companies network has to be rebuilt.
A summary of the current western europe wool industry challenges
Let's jump to another matter. One of the day to day issues with wool is that untreated, it has to be washed gently in warm water and laid flat to dry. The fibre is also known to shrink, to itch when it's low quality, and to pill after some use. To counter all this, the industry has invented several processes, known as anti-pill and superwash. The latter allows to wash garments in a regular washing machine at somewhat low temperature.
It's not that easy to get information about superwash online, and it's not easy either to find something understable for a non-chemist. After much digging, here's what I've collected, but bear in mind that I'm not a specialist in this area, so I've done my best but don't hesitate to check or contact me if I'm wrong. The names that came up the most often in my search are:
Superwash treatments alter the properties of the wool. These advantages prevent felting the wool as well as blocking (i.e. shaping a knitted garment after its first wash). The wool can also become weaker, lose its ability to hold water and to regulate temperature.
On the environmental side, it uses chemicals (some cause nasty pollution according to the articles below) and affects biodegradability of the fibre.
Some explanation about Hercosett process (via archive.org)
http://prismadye.com/Files/TDS/EN/BASOLAN_AS_A_e.pdf
https://www.woolwise.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/07.1-Functional-Finishes-Presentation.pdf
After much thought on the subject, no. Of course I've picked some online shops which seem to answer at least some of the issues I'm mentioning, but I won't link to them for several reasons.
The first one is that I'm not here to advertise. I'm writing this article to pinpoint what is going wrong in my humble opinion, and I don't want to give a quick conscience escape as well as being used as a moral guarantee for where it's nice to buy at the end of the speech.
The second one is that there's virtually no shop that fits all the criteria. Some companies also claim many un-checkable facts, and there's no way even for them to be sure of what they say is clean. A shopping guide would also be geographically constrained, making it useless for part of the readers of this page.
The third one is that depending on everyone's budget, it's unfair to direct to potentially expensive supplies that very few people can buy.
What to do then? Well, I try to balance between all this :
In the end, I think the best efforts we can make, as individuals having limited power to make the situation better, are probably in the way we use and see things. I'll illustrate my point with our relation to clothes.
In western-like rich lifestyle, garments are easily put in the washing machine as soon as they are stained, or even thrown away. This is an ecological disaster and an enormous social pressure for nothing. My coat is keeping me warm the same way whether there's a bit of coffee on it or not. A sewn patch can also be aesthetically satisfying, see for example the art of mending from the japanese sashiko techniques. We shouldn't feel a need to put in the garbage stuff because they are out of fashion. But we also shouldn't be so picky about having perfect clothes all the time and judging people through them. Having good quality long term clothes, mending them, upcycling them, and allowing some slack in everyone's look is a way to reduce industrial production.
This way of seeing things doesn't prevent from having a special look or creating. It's mainly giving time to things to share our lives longer, distancing ourselves from fleeting fashion movements and having a more forgiving society about objects that have had time to age and that tell a story.