Sustainability is booming! Environmentally friendly and resourceefficient manufacturing methods are becoming increasingly important to consumers of textiles too. Landfills and mountains of clothing in deserts are an extreme illustration of the problem of overproduction and apparel that is not biodegradable. One whole truckload of clothing is incinerated or landfilled every second.

This is prompting many consumers to reduce their consumption or turn to second-hand fashion. Demand for renewable, biodegradable raw material is growing too, though. Approximately 88 of the roughly 120 million tons of fibres processed are still synthetic. Alternatives are needed because the petroleum required for their manufacture is not only a finite resource but also extremely harmful to the environment. One of the textile industry’s biggest job in the future will consequently be switching from manufacturing with synthetic fibres, such as polyester and acrylic, to organic raw materials made of cellulose fibres, such as lyocell and modal. Reverting to fully organic raw materials would be even better because they not only cause fewer emissions during manufacturing but are also biodegradable. Before we look into the future, it is worth looking into the past. Flax, nettle and hemp were common raw materials before cotton supplanted all important fibre plants in the 19th century.

Flax/Linen

Flax or linen is no new organic raw material on the textile market. Linen is popular especially in the summer since it hardly absorbs any moisture, cannot become soaked with sweat and is pleasantly cool on the skin. Along with wool, linen had been one of the main raw materials for apparel, specifically undergarments, during the Hanse era. Everyone wore a linen undershirt or gown. The flax plant has major advantages over the cotton plant: Flax is very low-maintenance, only requires small quantities of fertilizer and water (roughly just one quarter of what a cotton plant consumes) and is less pest-prone because of its plant structure. Moreover, every part of the flax plant can be used or composted so that no waste is produced. A genuine zero-waste product! Linen fibres’ cooling property does not make them the ideal substitute for cotton, though.

Nettle

Nettle cloth is more similar to cotton. Nettle or bast textiles have more or less fallen into oblivion. Cloth had been made out of these familiar plants in ages past. The composition of their fibres, which are hollow inside, keeps apparel made of nettle cloth warm in the winter and makes it feel pleasantly cool on the skin in the summer.

Like the flax plant, stinging nettles need far less water, care and pesticides than cotton while growing. Nettle threads are currently used in cotton and viscose blends. The threads produced cannot be spun finely enough yet to be able to use pure nettle cloth. Blends with cotton or viscose threads compensate nettle fibres’ problematic textile properties at least in part. Blends retain the positive wearing and performance properties as far as possible. Like flax, nettle is a zero-waste product and fully biodegradable too. Moreover, stinging nettles can really grow anywhere.

Hemp

Along with nettle fibres, hemp fibres or hemp bast fibres are fully biodegradable. Moreover, hemp is one of the most versatile natural fibres. Hemp textiles are antibacterial, very durable and tough and, like nettle cloth, are cooling in the summer and insulating in the winter.

The hemp plant grows quickly and requires very little water and no herbicides, pesticides or synthetic fertilizer while growing. Why has this super plant not long since become the standard in textile production? The reason is arguably its relationship to the drug cannabis. Even though the only high industrial hemp induces is caused by the knowledge of doing something good for the environment, growing it has been illegal for a long time, especially in the Western world. China is far ahead of Western countries in its industrial use. Growing it has never been forbidden there. Over 50% of global hemp production now take place in China. More than half of the over 600 international patents on textile manufacturing with hemp fibres have been filed there. The problem however is that fair labour conditions do not always prevail in Chinese manufacturing facilities. That is why it is important to pay attention to the country of origin and labels when purchasing apparel made of hemp fibres.

These organic raw materials are also only fully biodegradable when they are used alone. Blends currently constitute the biggest problem for old textile recycling.