Pros and Cons: Organic Fabric
By: Robert Casanova
When more people are eco-conscious, it is a hot trend that fashion goes green. Many eco materials are considered for clothing fabric instead of traditional cotton. Those natural resources include bamboo, corn, organic cotton, hemp, silk, even coconut shells. Three of them, bamboo, silk, and organic cotton, are discussed including both pros and cons.
Bamboo
Bamboo fabric has a good reputation from the benefit to both human and earth in the clothing industry. Bamboo fabric has a soft touch and a stronger fabric. Due the fabric's structure, the fabric is very breathable to stay cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. Also, it can absorb 3-4 times more water than the traditional cotton fabric without sticking to your skin. It is very good for sports wear or casual wear. At the same time, the benefits of bamboo are abundant to the earth. It grows very fast to be ready for harvesting in four years. It does not require replanting because of the robust reproduction ability from its root networking. Moreover, bamboo naturally grows with no irritation, poisonous pesticides, and fertilizers.
However, the above pros are only part of the bamboo fabric life. The whole fabric process includes material planting and the process to make the plant into a fabric. Two ways are to process bamboo to make it into a fabric: mechanical or chemical. The mechanical way is by crushing the plant and then enzyme-breaking the fiber into a mushy mass so that the fibers can be mechanically combed out and spun into a yarn. This way is really eco-friendly process. Very little bamboo fabric is processed with this way because of intensive labor and higher cost. Most of bamboo fabric are made with the chemically manufacture process. The mushy mass to comb out the fibers is made through an intensive chemical cooking process. The chemical soaking and multiple bleaching processes gives some feel how green the bamboo fabric is.
Organic Cotton
In wiki, organic cotton is defined as cotton that is grown without pesticides from plants which are not genetically modified. The biological controls are implemented as an alternative to pesticides. The reduced chemical is also benefit for the air and water. Shoppers do not expose their skin to the chemical. Also, the eco-friendly cotton has a stronger, more durable fabric from the extra-long fibers.
The planting of organic cotton is at a developing stage and even experimental process. Also there is no standard third-party monitoring to guarantee the planting process.
Silk
Silk is well-known with lots of excellent features for a long time. It is a natural protein fiber so it is good for the person who has allergic skin. The production process is eco-friendly. Silk is the first choice in the fashion world for its smoothness and draping well feature.
The high price and special care is the obstacle for its popularity. Even with new technology of silk setting for washing machine, there is no way to try the silk in your dryer.
Buy or not, which one to buy that is your own choice. At least
, now you know before you buy.
For more information on the author of this article:
http://www.theh2hproject.org
For more info on organic fabrics:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/organic-clothing1.htm
