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They say that cotton is the fabric of our lives. But, if you look at the numbers, polyester is the fabric that we use the most. According to some estimates 60% of garments are made with polyester. It’s always an environmental disaster. Not only does the fabric take years to decompose while shedding toxic microfibers in the wash, it is also a plastic-based material that uses 342 million barrels of oil yearly. Yet, as a versatile material used in everything from athleisurewear to handbags, one big question that arises is what sustainable fabrics can be alternatives to this popular plastic-based material?
At first you might assume that the answer is cotton. While cotton has a lot of eco-street cred since it’s biodegradable, it is also a water intensive crop so in some cases it’s not the most environmentally friendly alternative. Instead, some brands are looking to other plants as solutions that can be made into sustainable fabrics that don’t rely so heavily on resources like water. Sometimes bamboo-based fibers are used to create fabrics that mimic polyester’s ‘silky’ texture. Plants like cacti and apples are being redesigned into leather-like materials thanks to creative innovations. Some of these fabrics are so cutting edge that they haven’t hit mainstream retailers and are only used by a select handful of designers. Other sustainable fabrics are traditional materials that you have hanging in your closet. All of them are plant-based and hold promise for a more sustainable fashion industry.
Over the last year The Wellness Feed has written several guides on sustainable fabrics. Below, we’ve rounded up the plant-based fabrics that offer sustainable solutions to fashion’s plastic fabric problem. And, we think these fabrics will the materials that you’ll soon read about everywhere.
The Traditionalists
While these sustainable fabrics aren’t traditional per se, they are widely used enough that most likely you’ve worn them. As plant-based alternatives to more commonly used plastic-based materials like polyester or nylon, they’re a sustainable solution to fashion’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Bamboo
When it comes to clothing, bamboo can be made into an array of fabrics. Some of these include rayon or lyocell which are made from the cellulose fibers of the plant. Other times it’s blended with cotton and linen fibers to strengthen fabrics.
Bamboo fabrics begin with the leaves and the woody shoots of the plant which are crushed and then broken down with solvents like sodium hydroxide to form a cellulose mush-like mixture. This is then pressed and treated with other chemicals until it becomes cellulose fiber threads that can be spun and woven into a fabric.
Viscose
Have you ever brushed your hands across a fabric that at first you thought was silk, but later found out that it wasn’t? If it’s not real silk, chances are that it might be its synthetic stand-in; viscose. This fabric has the same lightweight and soft characteristics of silk, but instead of being harvested from silk worms, it’s made from wood pulp. Viscose has been around since the 1880s and has been used as a cheaper substitute ever since.
As a cheaper man-made alternative to silk, viscose is often the material of choice for ‘silky’ blouses or dreamy lightweight velvet pieces. A few of it’s other benefits are that it maintains it’s shape and can feel like cotton too. So, double check the labels to see if that’s really silk or cotton that you’re feeling.
Making viscose is a chemical-intensive process. To begin with, lightweight trees like eucalyptus, beech and bamboo are turned into wood chips so that they can be dissolved with chemicals like sodium hydroxide to become a wood pulp solution. This pulp is once again retreated with more chemicals to be turned into fibers that can be spun into yarn. After the yarn is made it can be woven into fabric.
Tencel
When we talk about Tencel, we’re generally talking about a specific product: Tencel Lyocell. This is a brand name under the Austrian manufacturing company, Lenzing. Lyocell is a fiber that’s made from processing wood pulp. Because it is both man-made and sourced from natural materials, it’s neither a natural fiber or synthetic. The technical term for fibers like lyocell is “regenerated cellulose,” but you can sort of think of it as a natural-synthetic hybrid. It’s often considered a more sustainable alternative to fabrics like cotton because its wood pulp is responsibly sourced and processed in an environmentally safe, non-toxic way. Additionally, it’s moisture wicking, flexible, and elastic. These qualities also make it a great fabric for blends.
While Tencel generally refers to Tencel Lyocell, there are other Tencel products out there. First, Lenzing also produces Tencel Modal and Tencel Lyocell Filament. The Modal is a much softer fabric than lyocell; whereas the lyocell filament is a yarn-like version.
Peace Silk
What makes peace silk different from conventional silk is the way it’s harvested. Rather than killing silkworms in their cocoons, peace silk producers let their silkworms go through their life cycle uninterrupted. These silkworms eventually emerge from their cocoons on their own and the leftover cocoons are harvested without causing any harm to the insects themselves. Once the silk is harvested, it must be woven together by hand in the time-consuming process involved in making conventional silk.
Some types of peace silk also use the silk from eri caterpillars, which are a different species altogether. Their cocoons are open-ended, which means that they can easily exit them without having to damage the cocoon. While eri silk is a great candidate for peace silk, it is thought of as a lesser quality silk.
The Innovators
Drawing inspiration from nature these plant-based materials find innovative ways to reduce waste and are alternatives to animal or plastic-based fabrics. As the next wave of sustainable fabrics, most likely you’re just hearing about them as designers utilize them in limited collections and they slowly being to be used in the mass market.
Mylo: Mushroom Leather
Mylo is made from mycelium – the underground fibers that produce mushrooms, provide nutrients to plants, and are so strong that they hold the planet together. It is a material in it’s own right, not just a leather substitute. It moves very much like leather and can be embossed in any pattern as leather can be.
Apple: Leather
Whereas the leather industry is infamous for emitting dangerous amounts of carbon, polluting, and overusing water, alternative (also known as biobased) leathers promise a more sustainable solution. Apple lather is a particularly interesting alternative to conventional leather because it fulfills a need. When we eat apples, we leave behind waste, like the core and the seeds and even bits of uneaten fruit and skin. Similarly, when companies process apples for juice and compote, they leave behind solids. As Oliver explained to me, this waste generally doesn’t have anywhere to go other than a landfill. Luckily, apple leather manufacturers can take apple solids and process them, combine them with low-impact polyurethane, and then apply that material to a canvas. The result is a product with a similar texture and durability to traditional leather.
Piñatex: Pineapple Leather
Pineapple leather, or Piñatex, is an alternative leather made primarily from the cellulose fibers of pineapples. The idea for pineapple leather originated as part of Dr. Carmen Hijosa’s PhD from the Royal College of Art in London. Back then, she was inspired by traditional Filipino garments made of pineapple fibers.
It’s created through an innovative process that focuses on a cellulose-rich byproduct of harvesting that would otherwise be waste–the pineapple leaves. As with many other alternative leathers, pineapple leather consists not only of natural cellulose, but additional materials, namely PLA (polyactic acid) and resin. PLA is commonly called bioplastic and it’s a material found in several leather alternatives (like apple leather), as well as in more environmentally conscious sunglasses. And pineapple leather is also coated with polyurethane (PU), another bioplastic.