Share This Article
From microplastics to toxins, polyester clothing is earning a bad rep. Now, think tank Fashion for Good is bringing together industry leaders to adopt plants over plastic.
| All products featured on The Wellness Feed are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission.|
When will we finally be able to carry a mushroom leather handbag? Or, wear a silky dress made from algae that decomposes in our backyard? For the last several years, the fashion industry has been buzzing with news of innovative fabrics promising to disrupt the cycle of using fossil fuels and generating plastic waste. Yet, aside from a few soft-core launches and mini capsule collections, these materials have yet to hit stores.
So, the question remains- can bio-based materials offset and eventually replace polyester? Over the last few decades, the fashion industry’s reliance on fossil fuels has gained momentum. A huge part of that is directly linked to polyester becoming one of the most used fabrics in the industry. With a host of negative impacts linked to polyester, companies have sought innovative solutions, most often using plants to mimic the more desirable properties (drape, soft texture, durability) of polyester. Yet, the reality is that few brands use these innovative materials. Now, a team of materials science and fashion companies, including Fashion For Good and On, is building out solutions to bring bio-based materials to brands and consumers like me and you.
Plastic Clothes Are A Problem
Polyester, nylon, spandex. Every time you see one of these materials listed on your clothing, know that you are wearing a type of plastic. These man-made materials are sourced from fossil fuels. In fact, the production of these plastic-based materials uses approximately 342 million barrels of oil yearly. The pollution produced from the extraction and production of these resources alone has been linked to neurological, cardiovascular, and other diseases. But the negative impacts don’t end there.
The clothing we wear sheds into tiny fibers. This can happen when we wash them or simply from wearing them. If you’ve come across the term microplastics, then you know that plastic-based clothing sheds fibers 5 mm in length. Unlike natural fibers- linen, cotton, or wool- polyester, nylon, elastane, and spandex can take hundreds of years to decompose. Which is why microplastics that shed in the wash, travel, and accumulate in our food and water resources, and even in our own bodies. While studies about the impact of microplastics on our health are fairly new and will require more research, current evidence suggests they can weaken our immune system, deteriorate tissues, cause cell damage, and more.
The dawn of fast fashion decreased the number of times a garment is worn and accelerated the rate of disposal. Put bluntly, we wear clothes fewer times than our parents and grandparents, but throw out far more. Globally, we throw out 101 million tons of clothing yearly, and that number is increasing. Millions of tons of clothing accumulating in landfills doesn’t simply sit there. Landfills produce greenhouse gases and are considered the third-largest producer of methane gas. Furthermore, as mentioned before, plastic-based materials break apart into microplastics in landfills that further pollute the air, soil, and water resources.
From source to landfill, plastic-based clothing has a lot of negative impacts on our health and the environment. Minimizing those impacts requires a combination of minimizing production and replacing those materials with natural and bio-based materials.
Can Plants Replace Plastic?
As polyester’s natural alternative, bio-based materials are man made materials sourced from plants. This minimizes some of the impact from extraction and production in terms of CO2 emissions and pollution. And, being made from natural resources like corn, algae, wood, etc., ensures that they’re biodegradable, decomposing within 3 months to 3 years, versus hundreds of years.
Some bio-based materials- viscose, lyocell, and Tencel™ have been around for decades. Yet, despite being derived from renewable materials like plants, they have their own environmental drawbacks. For instance, viscose is made from the pulp of fast-growing trees like beech. This has led to some concerns about deforestation and the loss of biodiversity due to the monoculture of tree farms. Furthermore, the traditional processing facilities for these materials use a lot of water and release toxic chemicals into the air.
Taking into account all of these environmental concerns, there are exceptions to the rule, such as LENZING™, a type of viscose certified for complying with the EU’s environmental standards to use wood sourced from sustainably managed forests and ensure that their processing facilities operate in a closed-loop system to reduce releasing toxins into the environment. Fibers are also certified to be biodegradable. and compostable.
Following in the footsteps of LENZING™, today’s material science companies are driving the adoption of similar sustainable solutions to create promising new materials that have a lower impact and can be produced at scale. Polylactic Acid (PLA) is one example of a bio-based material that can be an alternative to polyester. Derived from corn or sugarcane, it can be crafted into a material that mimics the softness and moisture-wicking properties of polyester althleisurewear.
While there are alternatives to polyester, each has its own obstacles to reaching the masses. One reason is that these fabrics aren’t widely available to meet demand. So, what is the solution to help the fashion industry move away from plastics?
Fashion For Good Bringing Bio-Materials To The Masses
“Lower-impact elastane solutions exist, but they lack the pilot-scale validation brands need to scale them confidently.
Katrin Ley, Fashion for Good Managing Director.
Moving the fashion industry away from polyester and its host of negative impacts involves not only offering alternatives but offering them at a scale that can meet current quotas and is compatible with current manufacturing processes. Fashion for Good’s Mass Balance Demonstrator project is one solution to these issues. Launched this spring, the initiative is a collaboration between the think tank, BESTSELLER, Beyond Yoga (Levi Strauss & Co.), ON, Paradise Textiles, Environmental Resources Management (ERM), Indorama Ventures, ISCC, UPM Biochemicals, and Textile Exchange.
The main focus on gathering data about how much organic mass is part of biobased materials. To date, some biobased materials still contain a portion of fossil-fuel-derived materials. For instance, even that cool new mushroom-leather handbag might contain a small amount of plastic-based polyurethane to ensure durability. By quantifying that information, the project aims to make it more readily available for further research, production, and companies looking to adopt or improve upon the material.
The project will also produce these biomaterials, calculate their climate impact, and offer research-backed guidance on how to scale the use of these materials. For brands looking to adapt these innovative materials and move away from polyester, the information will be made available.
“We are at a point where the industry wants to move and adopt biosynthetics, but the production frameworks and commercial infrastructure haven’t caught up,” Katrin explained in a press release. “The Mass Balance Demonstrator project is about closing that gap: building the impact and commercial evidence, the blueprint, and the feedback loops that will allow the MBA model to scale with integrity.”
Plastics in the fashion industry pose a real problem. Yet, just as the problem didn’t appear overnight, unfortunately, the same can be said for the solution. Moving the industry away from plastic materials will require innovation, addressing environmental issues, and developing blueprints for brands to adopt these new materials. As a leader in biomaterials, Fashion for Good’s latest project is one that aims to do just that. By bringing together brands and the manufacturers of these materials, the project will hopefully accelerate the adoption of new materials that address fashion’s biggest environmental woes and find ways to continually improve these materials to have a better impact on the environment.
