Better living through green chemistry: Clothing

12 March 2010
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Dye from a jeans factry runs off into the river Caledon near Maseru

(Image: Robin Hammond/Panos)

Perhaps no industry depends more on unsustainable and environmentally hazardous chemicals than the clothing trade. Growing cotton consumes vast quantities of chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. Synthetic textiles such as polyester come from petrochemicals.

Dyeing both synthetic and natural fibres requires an intense chemical cocktail: giving denim jeans their typical indigo colour, for example, requires use of large quantities of sodium hydrosulphite, an environmentally antagonistic chemical that can corrode cement and damage sewage pipes. That cocktail is chased down by millions of litres of rinse water at factories that are often located in areas of the world, such as parts of India, where water is already scarce.


With such problems in mind, NatureWorks is investigating the use of its corn-based Ingeo polymer to make fibres that can be woven into a textile. Unfortunately, the end product has a tendency to melt when ironed, and it is also several times the price of polyester. The Italian fashion house Gattinoni has used it to make a “bio” wedding dress, but it appears to be a long way from regular commercial production. A polymer called Sorona, made by US chemical giant DuPont, also uses corn as the source for part of its raw material – though more than 60 per cent is still derived from petroleum.

If the wooden look is more your style, bamboo, beech and eucalyptus are renewably sourced textile fibres. Bamboo can grow nearly anywhere without pesticides or herbicides, and has already been used in T-shirts, ski boots and a variety of other clothing items. In one respect, however, it is no green dream: it cannot be broken down into fibres for clothing without the use of hazardous chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and carbon disulphide.

A better bet might be Tencel, a wood-derived, viscose-like fabric made by the Austria-based manufacturer Lenzing in a process that uses a less corrosive solvent, N-methylmopholine oxide, than normal viscose production and recycles 99.6 per cent of it each time, dramatically reducing waste. Tencel has been used for items as diverse as chefs’ outfits and surgical garments, but it is several times the price of viscose. Truly green and affordable clothes are a way off yet.

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