We’re all trying to make better choices when it comes to the clothes we buy, and that includes finding out a bit more about what actually goes into our clothes. The materials that make up our t-shirts, jeans and boots are often not our first thought when we’re browsing the shops or scrolling through an online sale, but they’re actually one of the most important elements of an item that determine whether it’s sustainable or unsustainable.

For a material to be sustainable, it means that the way it is grown or created has to be able to continue forever without causing harm to the planet. If you’re using a finite resource like fossil fuels to create plastic or oil, these are unsustainable as they will eventually run out and using them causes long-lasting damage to our planet. 

With this in mind, I wanted to create a short blog about some common materials and offer an overview of which ones are worst and what alternatives there are out there. Creating resources like this one can hopefully help any confused shopper know what to look for on the care label of a garment and make up their own minds as to whether they want to buy it or not. For the purpose of this blog I’ll be categorising materials into bad, better and best, so you can see what options you have for alternatives. I’m not going to go into too much scientific detail as to why each of these materials are categorised this way, just a brief overview that will hopefully be more digestible and memorable. I’ll of course include as many relevant links as I can for those of you who want to do further reading.

First of all, all fashion in general can be put into this bad/better/best list: 

• Fast fashion = bad (shopping on the high street or online with brands who don’t care about the planet or the people who make their clothes)

• Ethical/sustainable fashion = better (supporting smaller, independent brands who make their clothes ethically using sustainable, vegan materials)

• Secondhand fashion = best (using what is already in circulation)

It’s important to remember that if you’re buying secondhand clothing you can pretty much buy any material as it’s not creating new demand, as long as you care for it properly. For example, if you buy something made of polyester you could wash it inside a Guppyfriend bag to catch all the microfibres and stop them washing away into the sea. 

I’ve chosen to look at the top 5 worst materials as rated by the Higgs Materials Sustainability Index from the Pulse of the Fashion Report 2017. This looks at the environmental impact index per kg of material from cradle to gate, and takes into account things like greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, abiotic resource depletion and eutrophication. Yeah, I don’t know what all those words mean don’t worry, I just Googled them and they’re the bad shit that happens during the process of creating clothing.

Not surprisingly, 3 out of the 5 are animal materials, meaning an animal has had to be bred, raised and slaughtered (except wool) in order to produce this material. This is always my main point of reference for when people ask if animal materials are bad for the environment, because you can’t ignore the impact they have on the land and water by raising these animals, and that is included in the impact of a material. 

So, let’s just dive straight into the worst offender of them all… 

Cow’s Leather

Bad – cow’s leather

I’ve actually written a few blog posts about the impact of cow’s leather on the environment, like this one that breaks down the facts behind the material. As I said, I’ll be brief, so here are the top reasons cow’s leather is bad for the environment:

• Cattle rearing causes deforestation, water and land overuse, and gas emissions

• To turn the skin into a pelt involves processes using excessive amounts of water consumption, energy usage, chemicals, and wastage

• Most leather tanning uses a toxic chemical called chromium, poisoning water and humans that handle it

Better – synthetic leather

Although it’s made from undesirable ingredients like crude oil, it actually rates lower cow’s leather on the Higgs Materials Sustainability Index. You can even get synthetic leather made partly with vegetable oil now – look out for it!

Best – plant-based leather

Hands down the best alternative to cow’s leather are plant-based alternatives like leather made from pineapple, apple, citrus, cactus, grapes, coffee or mushrooms. These are made from using the waste products of existing processes (reducing waste) and turning them into materials. I recommend the Womsh vegan sneakers made from apple leather and the Collection & Co unisex sneakers made from pineapple leather. 

Silk

Bad – silk

I found a great website breaking down some of the reasons silk is bad for the environment, check it out. Often mistaken as an eco-friendly material, silk is actually one of the worst in terms of its environmental impact. Here’s why:

• Very water intensive to grow mulberry trees

• Involves creating high temperature environments using fossil fuel energy

• Chemicals used in processing the raw material into fine silk are harmful to environment

Better – ramie

Ramie is a material that’s derived from a flowering plant in the nettle family. It’s been used for over 6,000 years for the production of fabric, and it has the look, feel and drape of silk, making it great for scarves, dresses and blouses. 

Best – spider silk

This is the stuff Stella McCartney is trying to use more now, as it’s a completely vegan, eco-friendly alternative to silk. The science behind this stuff blows my mind, check out more info on how it’s made and how it is less impactful on the environment here.

Cotton 

Bad – cotton

Non-organic cotton has long been known as one of the worst materials, mostly due to how much of it we are producing, approximately half of all textiles are made of cotton. Here are the main reasons to avoid cotton: 

• Extremely water intensive – it takes 20,000 litres to produce 1KG of cotton (equivalent to a single t-shirt and pair of jeans) 

• Cotton cultivation severely degrades soil quality, causing soil erosion and degredation 

• The use of substantial fertilizers and pesticides to grow the crops threaten the quality of soil and water, the health of biodiversity surrounding the fields, and the health of farm workers and nearby populations.

Better – organic cotton

Organic cotton production supports the health of soils, ecosystems and people by using natural processes rather than the use of toxic chemicals or GMOs. Look out for the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) or Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) on clothes for accreditations that confirm the cotton has been grown and produced in the right way.

Best – hemp

Hemp can be grown organically nearly everywhere meaning no pesticides are needed at all, a great alternative to cotton. Hemp requires much less water, grows very quickly (70 to 110 days), and uses minimal nutrients from the soil. The plant roots also aerate the soil, leaving it rich for future crops.

Bast fibres 

Bad – bast fibres 

Bast is the fibrous material found inside plants, and can be used to make materials like jute, hemp, ramie, and flax. From what I can tell, the main issue with bast fibres is the process needed to take them from plant to fabric can involve chemicals. Here’s a great website that breaks down the different types of bast fibres and what the good and bad parts are. 

Better – organic bast fibres

Ok this one is tricky because bast fibres are actually super sustainable as a crop, it’s just how it’s produced into material that can make it bad. One way to buy better bast is to opt for organically grown fibres, meaning no toxic chemicals used in the growing of the crop or the production process. 

Best – locally grown, organic bast fibres

This will involve extra leg work, I’m not going to lie, but it’s worth it. Locally grown bast fibre would mean it hasn’t had to travel as far, cutting down on carbon emissions, and organic means no pesticides or fertilizer used. Here’s a website with good information about UK hemp production to give you an idea of what we currently make here. 

Wool 

Bad – wool

Wool is the worst offender in my opinion as it masquerades as an eco-material and has largely avoided any major scrutiny to its credentials. I found this citation online going into the science behind the chemicals used in processing wool, and here is a PETA article listing the other ways it affects the environment. Here are the top reasons why wool is harmful to the environment:

• Methane emissions from livestock

• Sheep grazing can cause Badlands (land degradation)

• Water intensive livestock rearing

• Cocktail of toxic chemicals used in processing wool 

Better – eco-fleece

Eco-Fleece is a blend of polyester (PET), cotton and rayon that includes recycled and organic materials. It used existing materials and recycles them to create a new fabric. Just make sure you wash this in a Guppyfriend bag to catch any microfibres. 

Best – Tencel

Tencel Lyocell is made from wood pulp and turned into fabric and is a closed loop process. The process used to spin the fibre reuses 99% of the solvents involved and recycles the water. Here’s a great website that breaks down a lot of vegan alternatives to wool yarn – for all you knitters out there!

Okay that turned out to be a long one folks – if you made it down this far, thank you and fair play to you! I hope this was an interesting read and helped you in some way to think about the materials we use for fashion and what eco-friendly alternatives are out there. For reference, here’s my bad, better, best table of the top 5 worst materials: