While it comes to talk about the apparel and textile supply chain, the fiber is considered as the major factor in dealing with environmental sustainability. It might include the ways a fiber is grown, manufactured and the ways the raw material is used. The claim and its explanation were made in a recently published report from a company named as Textile Intelligence.
The report was published with the title, Talking Strategy: fashioning fibers for an environmentally sustainable future. According to the report, though the fibers are the core points in the textile industry but are playing a significant role in harming the environment. For instance, in the case of wool, the rearing o sheep is the basic stage of the problem.
The Manure generated from livestock, for example, has contributed significantly to the increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases for the last 2 centuries. At the same time, faecal matter has been known to contaminate waterways in areas where sheep are farmed. Also, high stock numbers can be a cause of significant soil erosion which can trigger desertification.
While if we talk about cotton, the basic problem is the usage of water, as said is that; almost 8,500 liters of water are needed to grow the cotton used in the manufacture of a T-shirt and a pair of jeans. Other factors include pesticides, synthetic fertilizers and other chemicals that have a negative impact on the environment in one way or another.
To cope with the problem there are a number of initiatives taken to find a solution. The most known of these includes; Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), organic cotton, Cotton made in Africa (CmiA) and Fairtrade certified cotton etc. Despite these initiatives, these so-called “identity cotton” account for only a small proportion of total cotton production. In 2015 organic cotton accounted for a mere 0.5%. And even when other types of sustainable cotton are added, the total is only 16%. Admittedly, this share is expected to reach 35% by 2020. But most identity cotton falls short of the standards of organic cotton in terms of environmental sustainability as they still involve the use of artificial pesticides and fertilizers.
According to the report, the man-made fiber can be a better option as they are a more environmentally friendly alternative. In the manufacture of man-made cellulosic fibers – such as cuprammonium rayon (cupro), lyocell, modal, and viscose – most of the raw material used is wood pulp, which can be obtained from a naturally occurring renewable resource in the form of trees. At the same time, the raw material can also be more usable and environment-friendly. The process and the materials for man-made fiber also got a prominent space in the final published copy of the report.
