Ultimately, Sustainability

“Natural” has become synonymous with healthy, safe, environmentally friendly, green, and sustainable leaving the “synthetic” to be associated with words like fake and harmful. To the unsuspecting consumer those connotations make sense. However, if you do just a little bit of research it is not hard to realize that “natural” is not always better and “synthetic” isn’t always bad. In fact, with the progression of technology, the goal of textile producers has started to point towards the combination of the two ideas in order to create sustainable synthetic materials.

Charline Ducas explains that natural fibers are more appealing because they are more comfortable and therefore often make up the garments we wear closest to our skin. Unfortunately those natural fibers like cotton are not as environmentally friendly as they would seam. Ducas discusses six ways to make garments more sustainable and not one of them was to remove synthetic materials.

Reducing, recycling, upcyling was the first suggestion Ducas discusses. Under this headline she explains that we need to focus on zero waste design and designing for disassembly and recyclability. These solutions focus on reducing the environmental footprint of the waste we put back into the environment. In Material Diversity, Fletcher discusses an entirely new class of synthetic fibers known as Poly(lactic acid), PLA, or biopolymer. This fiber is compostable in industrial composting facilities. Agproducts.unl.edu notes that PLA is an attractive option because it can break down under the “composting system while maintaining its integrity under normal use.” Another benefit listed by agproducts.unl.edu is that PLA is created from renewable resources such as corn. PLA is an alternative to the use of petroleum and while it is not a flawless solution yet, it is a start.

Doing more from less is Ducas’ third suggestion. Under this headline Ducas discusses the Huntsman Research and Technology group responsible for Avitera, revolutionary textile dyeing products created to save water. “Huntsman takes a lot of pride in being able to improve how the world works with chemicals while being responsible to the environment in which we live.” It is because of the Huntsman research that Avitera has been proven to reduce the water used in dyeing cotton by 50%, saved process time by 50%, and performed the dyeing process with 70% less energy. The example the Huntsman group has set shows that it is possible to use fewer materials and still accomplish the task expected.

Ducas’ other suggestions include renewables, re-exploring naturals, going water-less, thinking of new ways. She acknowledges that not all solutions are available but the industry is working on the technology to make them available.

“Materials are our starting point for change.” It is our job to figure out how to use them to their full potential and preserve them so that we can use them in years to come. In Material Diversity, Fletcher spotlights the Sustainable Cotton Project. In California they have found “that biological integrated pest management (IPM) techniques have potential to reduce chemical use by more than that achieved by organic cultivation practices.” The goal of the Sustainable cotton project is to “lessen the toll that the soil-to-shirt cotton production process takes on the earth’s air, water, and soil, and the health of people in cotton growing areas.” People don’t realize that it isn’t just about the creation of a fiber or material or garment but that once the garment is made it becomes about the laundering of the clothes and then the discarding of the garments at the end of their life cycle. In order to make garments sustainable we need to reduce their environmental footprint at each step throughout the process. It does not matter if material is environmentally friendly to create if there is not a sustainable way to dispose of the product at the end. As a consumer it is important to think of these things when we are shopping for the next article of clothing we want to add to our closet. It is our duty to consider how it was made, how we have to care for it, and what is going to happen to it when are through with it.

Ultimately, my research on this issue has brought me to the conclusion that the terms “synthetic” and “natural” are misleading. “Natural” refers to the organic agriculture movement, “synthetic” refers to fibers created from natural materials but through chemical/man-made processes and “sustainable” stems from the environmental movement. While “natural” sounds more appealing than “synthetic,” neither of those options offers everything that the label of being “sustainable” does. Consumers need to realize that the battle is not between synthetic and natural but between sustainable and unsustainable materials.