Image: UASHMAMA

Plastic Free Alternatives to Animal-Derived Materials

For those looking to avoid animal-derived materials for the sake of animals themselves, as well as people and the planet, it can be difficult to know what to wear instead. Switching out animal skins for plastic is no perfect solution, so fortunately there are plenty of totally animal and plastic free alternatives to fur, leather and wool. 

Why do some people avoid wearing animal-derived materials like fur, leather and wool?

A growing number of people are opting to avoid all animal-derived materials in fashion – as many as one in eight globally, according to surveying by FOUR PAWS. There are plenty of reasons for this change, with the first and most obvious being for the protection of animals themselves. Whether fur, leather or wool, the industries selling these skins and fibers ultimately slaughter animals when it is most profitable. The cruelties of fur are most commonly understood, but leather – a valuable co-product of the meat industry – and wool have insidious undersides, too. From calf-cow separation and painful dehorning for leather and brutal tail docking and selective breeding practices for wool, it’s easy to understand this growing shift beyond animal-derived materials. But there are environmental reasons for this switch, too. 

While we could talk for days about the environmental impacts of these materials, here are a few fast facts: Leather has one of the most significant negative climate, land, and biodiversity impacts of any material on the planet. Making cow skin leather for a pair of boots can result in as many as 7 times more emissions than even synthetic leather, which is far out-performed by genuinely sustainable alternatives, too. Meanwhile, fur contributes to major pollution through factory-farming, and is rendered toxically non-biodegradable by the chemicals pelts are processed with in order to be wearable. Wool on the other hand is highly land-inefficient, requiring as much as 1,800 square meters more land to produce an average knitted sweater than materials like cotton or Tencel. In turn, wool contributes to major biodiversity destruction and even some serious species threats. 

Finally, some of the human impacts of these animal-derived material supply chains include the plight of slaughterhouse workers killing for a living, who are more likely to suffer with perpetration-induced traumatic stress (similar to PTSD) due to their inherently violent work. Too, people working in both fur-dressing and leather tanning are exposed to harmful and carcinogenic substances frequently, and even shearers have reported to be mistreated and underpaid. Meanwhile farmers across all three material production systems have spoken about the mental distress tied to the cruel aspects of their work. 

Why are plastic materials not a sustainable solution either?

When looking to find alternatives to fur, leather and wool, you’ll come across a lot of synthetic materials. While synthetic alternatives actually have smaller climate impacts, this does not mean they are good for the climate or planet – they certainly are not! Acrylic faux fur and wool, polyurethane synthetic leather: these plastic materials are derived from fossil fuels. As a global community, the IPCC states that we must shift beyond the use of all fossil fuels, and yet the fashion industry makes as much as 62% of all materials from petrochemicals. This means that as many as 342 million barrels of crude oil are used each year to produce plastic textiles. This impacts our shared planet, wildlife, and people – particularly those who are poorer and who are Black and Brown, in a form of environmental racism seen across the leather supply chain too. 

What’s more, non-biodegradable materials like synthetics, as well as processed fur and leather, can contribute to pollution when garments, shoes and bags are no longer in use. Every time a garment like, say, a synthetic thermal top is washed, tiny fibers come off the fabric and are released into waterways, which ultimately connect to the ocean in many cases. It’s estimated that a whopping 1.5 million trillion microfibers are present in the ocean today. While it’s important to note that even non-plastic fibers from wool to cotton can become non-biodegradable microfibers too, if harmful dyes and processing substances are used, these materials have the capacity to be biodegradable, which is an important distinction. A fossil-fuel derived plastic fiber is never going to be a solution. 

Image: Murmali

Plastic-free alternatives to leather

So what animal-free and plastic-free leather alternatives exist? And what brands are using them? Here are a few great options:

MIRUM

MIRUM is probably the most exciting leather alternative available today. Made by Natural Fiber Welding (NFW), the material is certified to be made wholly from bio-based content. Able to be customized for different brands based on how thick, textured, colored or flexible they want their material to be, MIRUM can be made from a variety of different materials. These include natural rubber (certified to be sourced responsibly), clays, plant-based oils and waxes, coconut husk fiber, cork powder sourced as a by-product from wine-stopper making, rice hulls, and more. Zero animal inputs and zero plastic make it better for the planet, and able to both compost and be recycled. If you’re looking for products made from MIRUM, it’s worth following NFW, as they share announcements on new brands regularly. Brave GentleMan offers some ethically made accessories and shoes from the material, while Melina Bucher offers a fairly produced handbag, and B-Corp Bellroy sells a simple wallet and other small goods. 

Washable paper 

While ‘paper’ probably makes you think of something thin, flimsy and easy to rip, washable paper is a different story. Durable, splash and tear resistant, washable paper sourced from certified responsible wood sources (look for the Forest Stewardship certification) can make for great bags and accessories. Treekind is a similar kind of material, made by a start-up which only uses fallen wood and leaves, as well as wasted Christmas trees to make their strong, sturdy and ultimately compostable material – just like washable paper. Want to get your hands on a woody alternative to animal and synthetic leather? UASHMAMA is a Tuscany based made-to-order label offering handbags, accessories and carry bags made from washable paper, offered in a variety of colourways and textures. Watch out for the small animal leather details on some products, though. Etsy is also full of small, local makers who use the material. 

Cork

Another tree-based and compostable option, cork bark can be stripped from trunks without harming the tree. In fact, stripping cork bark can help trees sequester more carbon. To ensure total biodegradation, make sure to pick cork fabrics that are backed onto cotton, not a synthetic material. Able to be embossed to mimic all kinds of textures (think crocodile skin alternative!)cork leather alternatives are available at a wide range of Portuguese brands, as this is where many cork trees grow. For luxury-end cork fashion look to Parisian brand Laflore, which combines cork with gorgeous hardware detailing for versatile travel bags, and easy-access every day handbags. Murmali uses high quality cork for their tote bags, cark holders, and over the shoulder bags. Meanwhile, Jord offers cork backpacks, petite crossbody bags and other accessories in both feminine and masculine styles. 

Plastic-free alternatives to wool

In the case of wool, there are a number of great plant-based, recycled and innovative alternatives that can be made into knitwear, base layers and other winter warmers – without plastic. 

Tencel

A cellulosic material produced in a closed-loop, non-polluting system, Tencel is also made from sustainably sourced wood. Tencel is thermo-regulating and moisture-wicking, meaning it helps to keep you both warm and cool as you need – just like wool does. In fact, laboratory research has shown Tencel to have similar water vapor absorption capacities as wool, while drying three times faster. It’s also antimicrobial. Because of these factors, silky smooth Tencel is a comfortable thermal layer, and can also be knitted into sweaters. Tencel winter warmers can be found at Organic Basics, where you can find turtlenecks and base layers, as well as at Armed Angel. This German label offers cardigans, sweatsuits and other cozy goods in Tencel – just make sure you avoid their wool-blend options. Feeling crafty? Wool and the Gang have a selection of 100% Tencel yarns you can buy alongside knitting patterns! 

Hemp

Hemp is a hardy, thermo-regulating and sustainable material that can grow large on a small amount of land. Often blended with other materials to be made into knitted fabrics and yarns, hemp can also be made into tweed. Opera Campi creates 100% hemp knitwear to order in Italy, using their own technology which makes hemp softer than usual. Though there are some wool blends to watch out for, this brand is leading the way for hemp knitwear. Another innovator, Australian brand Afends (use code SUSTAINABLYCHIC15 for 15% off full-priced items) has their own hemp farm which they make knitted pants, skirts, hoodies and ribbed long sleeves from.

Sustainably sourced cotton

Cotton can be sourced sustainably in a number of ways: when it’s recycled, organic, rain-fed, grown with more holistic management practices, and with fair trade labor. Cotton can be made into thick and chunky knits, with this thickness helping with warmth. The Knotty Ones uses fair trade cotton for their collection of beautiful knits, Willow and Claude knitwear and scarves are made from 100% Australian, transparent and responsibly sourced cotton, and People Tree offer a range of certified organic and fair trade cotton cardigans and other knits. 

Plastic-free alternatives to fur

Fur is the animal-derived material most widely recognised as unacceptable, and it’s easy to avoid. If you are looking for fur alternatives, let’s talk about the available options. 

Denim as a fur alternative 

Ukrainian brand Ksenia Schnaider created ‘faux fur’ from vintage denim which they shred and remake into a fluffy, furry and beautiful material. This sort of innovation shows how limitless the possibilities are when it comes to sustainable, animal- and plastic-free materials, if we’re willing to think creatively, and support the brands doing the same. 

Virgin plastic-free recycled faux fur

While ECOPEL has recently released GACHA, a biodegradable faux fur, it’s still very difficult to find such materials in brands. Until that changes, while it’s hard to find virgin plastic-free faux fur, there are faux furs made from 100% recycled synthetic sources – including from ocean-diverted plastics. Brands using these materials include London-based Jakke – which offers the best range of colorful, playful coats and jackets – as well as Ena Pelly, which offers sleek, elegant fur alternative designs. 

Pre-loved faux fur 

Of course, shopping pre-loved is always the most sustainable option, and there are plenty of vintage and pre-loved faux fur coats out there. These kinds of coats and jackets aren’t machine washed, helping to eliminate the microfiber waste problem. Making use of what’s already here on our finite planet is a great way to reduce your impact on the Earth and those we share it with. 

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About the Author
Emma Håkansson is the founder and director of Collective Fashion Justice which seeks to create a total ethics fashion system that prioritizes the life and wellbeing of non-human & human animals, as well as the planet, before profit & production. She has written countless articles on ethics, sustainability, and fashion, and has two books due out over the next two years.

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The Human Cost of Conventional Leather

There’s a lot of discussion about the environmental issues associated with producing leather, and whether or not we acknowledge it, we know that leather is the skin of slaughtered animals. Less attention is given to the plight of humans in many leather supply chains, who too often are exploited and harmed. 

Collective Fashion Justice’s report series, ‘Under their skin’, opened with its first edition, ‘leather’s impact on people’. From Indigenous land rights issues wrapped up with deforestation for cattle rearing in leather supply chains to health issues faced by exploited tannery workers, forced labour on some cattle ranches as well as both psychological and physical harm facing slaughterhouse workers, there’s a lot to unpack. And that’s before we talk about environmental racism tied to pollution coming from slaughterhouses and tanneries. So let’s trace a conventional leather supply chain, and explore what’s happening to people both in and surrounding them:

Illustration Credit: Inma Hortas / Under Their Skin

Leather, deforestation and Indigenous land rights

Raising cattle for both meat and leather is extremely land intensive. In fact, while some industry advertising tells us that free-range, pasture systems are more sustainable, these systems require more land and so contribute to greater degradation and biodiversity destruction. Cattle rearing is responsible for 80% of deforestation in the Amazon, in Brazil, one of the leading leather producing countries in the world. In fact, raising cattle for production eats up more land than any other human activity across the globe.

Clearly, deforestation and the loss of natural environments is bad for the planet. But what’s it got to do with people? In Brazil, the leather industry has been complicit in deforesting stolen Indigenous land, harming the Karipuna, Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau, Rio Ouro Preto, Rio Jacy-Paraná and Piripkura peoples. 

Harming native lands harms the people who belong to that land. As Waorani warrior and leader Nemonte Nenquimo said, “The Amazon rainforest is my home… the land grabbers are cutting down primary forest so that the cattle can graze… When you say that you are urgently looking for climate solutions, yet continue to build a world economy based on extraction and pollution, we know you are lying because we are the closest to the land, and the first to hear her cries… The Earth does not expect you to save her, she expects you to respect her. And we, as Indigenous peoples, expect the same.”

But, as the report notes, this problem is not exclusive to Brazil and Brazilian leather supply chains: across Paraguay, Bolivia, Argentina, the United States and Australia, these industries have and continue to rob Indigenous communities of their land, violating international human rights law. 

Unfortunately, even the Leather Working Group certification, considered the ‘best’ in the industry, still permits deforestation for leather. Leather supply chains can be very difficult to trace, making this a problem many brands are unable to begin solving. Leather, like viscose and other wood cellulose fibres are high risk for deforestation and associated human rights violations, so we need to be very wary of them. 

Illustration Credit: Inma Hortas / Under Their Skin

Farm workers

‘Tier four’ of fashion supply chains is where raw materials are produced. In the case of plant and animal-derived materials, that means farms. Cattle farms and ranches are very difficult to trace. In fact, Fashion Revoltuon’s 2022 Fashion Transparency Index, which investigated the 250 largest brands and retailers in the industry, found that just 12% of these fashion companies disclosed where they source their raw materials. This lack of transparency is a real problem, because exploitation runs rife in hiding. 

Cattle farms in leather supply chains unfortunately can, like with other farms in fashion supply chains, be run with exploitative and even forced labour. Forced labour, unjust payment and the exploitation of workers has been documented on cattle farms across Brazil, the United States, Australia, Paraguay, Vietnam and a number of other countries. JBS, the company which owns a huge portion of the world’s slaughterhouses and tanneries, has been ‘confirmed to source cattle from supplier farms that made use of workers kept in slavery-like conditions’. 

Too, working on a cattle farm supplying fashion brands can cause some workers serious mental distress. Routine and legal practices on cattle farms include cutting or burning off the budding horns of calves without pain relief, as well as other painful mutilation practices, in some instances including searing hot branding. Wouldn’t want to do this to cows? You’re not alone: “here I have to switch my love for animals a bit off, you have to if you work here”, and “you should not feel bad for them. If you have a thought about that you can’t be in the industry, you can’t feel bad for them, you just can’t”. These are the words of two workers on free-range cattle stations. 

Fashion brands working to reduce the suffering of cows on farms implement policies which demand pain relief for mutilation practices, but with such little transparency across all farms in the leather supply chain (often numerous farms are involved in one supply chain, thanks to the use of ‘background’ and ‘breeder’ farms), it can be difficult for these policies to have a real impact. Without traceability, it’s very challenging for fashion brands to make change, or know they need to. 

While some farms fortunately don’t carry out these cruel procedures without pain relief, in every leather supply chain, cattle are sent to be killed. For Jay Wilde, who ran a small-scale farm before a change of heart, sending cows he had grown to care for to their slaughter was “soul destroying”, and felt like playing a “dirty trick”. 

Illustration Credit: Inma Hortas / Under Their Skin

Slaughterhouse workers

These mental health impacts for workers in leather supply chains only worsen in slaughterhouses. We don’t often think of abattoirs as a part of the fashion industry, but the valuable co-product of leather could not exist without them. 

Slaughterhouse workers are more likely to suffer with something called perpetration-induced traumatic stress. This is similar to PTSD, but with one major difference: PITS is brought about by causing significant trauma to someone else, and feeling trauma yourself as a result. As with PTSD, symptoms include anxiety, panic, depression, paranoia, a sense of disintegration and dissociation, amongst other symptoms Yale researchers referred to as ‘the psychological consequences of the act of killing’. 

This violence only spreads further, as research has suggested that communities surrounding slaughterhouses can face increased rates of violent crime, considered a ‘spillover’ in the psyche of workers paid to kill for a living. 

Slaughterhouse line speeds are also increasing in many places around the world, increasing already seriously high risks of physical injury. Did you know that Human Rights Watch once referred to the factory job as the most dangerous in the United States? 

While speed rates can be reduced, safer equipment can be used and training can help to reduce injuries, the psychological aspects of slaughterhouse work are inherent to the job, and unable to be avoided in leather production. 

Illustration Credit: Inma Hortas / Under Their Skin

Tannery workers

Perhaps most commonly thought of when we think about the people who make leather are tannery workers. China and India transform more skins into leather through tanning than any other country, with many skins both produced onshore and imported into these nations for processing. 

In both of these countries, serious health hazards and exploitation are faced by workers and those living nearby tanneries. In China, the environmental pollution surrounding some industrial areas with tanneries is so bad that even the local government have referred to these places as ‘cancer villages’. In India too, as much as 40 million litres of untreated tannery wastewater full of carcinogenic substances like chromium and formaldehyde are dumped into the Ganga River. Every single day. This waterway is considered sacred by local people, who rely on it to live. 

Inside these tanneries, poor payment and child labour have been documented. Too, peer-reviewed, global studies have shown that workers face far higher risks of developing diseases including lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, skin cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer and soft tissue sarcoma, to name a few. 

While these problems are exceptionally bad in areas with less economic advantage, as a result of both environmental racism (where wealthier countries export their more environmentally destructive and health harming industries to poorer, normally non-white areas) and outdated infrastructure, many issues persist in wealthier nations. 

The ‘Made in Italy’ label evokes images of luxury in many of our minds, but a report funded by the European Commission shows a different story: tannery workers in the country exploit migrant workers who also face serious health risks due to their exposure to toxic chemicals. Too, these workers are often denied fair, living wages, while also being offered unjust working contracts which leave them vulnerable to exploitation. One tannery worker quoted in the report, said “we’re like lemons, they squeeze us and then throw us away”, while another, who spoke anonymously, said “you’re practically a salve – they say – if one week you complain or mess up, they send you away, they have you by the throat”. 

Again, the Leather Working Group certification fails to protect tannery workers from this kind of exploitation, despite being promoted by brands as assuring ‘responsible’ and ‘ethical’ leather. There are a number of brands that ensure safer and more fair working standards for tannery workers, and this is deeply important. There are also tanneries which better manage the chemical substances used in the process, better protecting surrounding communities from pollution. 

Illustration Credit: Inma Hortas / Under Their Skin

Garment workers 

Finally, once skins are fully transformed into leather, they are made into jackets, shoes, bags and other accessories. Here is where we meet garment workers. Whether clothes are being made from leather, an animal free alternative to it, cotton, polyester or any other material, the vast majority of people who make our clothes are not paid fairly or treated with respect.

Some estimates suggest that just 2% of garment workers are paid a living wage, with the rest receiving ‘poverty pay’ so minimal they are unable to afford all of their basic necessities. While we expect this from fast fashion brands selling clothing so cheap it would be impossible to pay everyone involved in making them properly, unjust payment occurs in luxury fashion, too. In fact, luxury brands such as Burberry and Chloé have faced legal trouble in the past, when it was found that their expensive leather bags were being made in Italian sweatshops. People working to make products for the brands were being paid less than $3.5USD each hour – for bags worth over a thousand dollars, if not more, in some cases. 

The fashion industry as a whole will never overcome these issues unless it recognises that dignity and life must be prioritised before profit. While there is promising improvement, and plenty of brands working to make clothes more ethically, there’s also a whole lot of room for major improvement. 

More ethical and sustainable alternatives to leather 

Some of the human exploitation found in leather supply chains can certainly be avoided, and every person deserves safe and fair work, no matter what work they are involved in. 

Not all cattle farms used forced labour, there are tanneries which provide proper safety gear to the people working with dangerous substances, and leather which does not come from deforested land which contribute to the forced displacement of Indigenous communities. Every reduction of suffering is an improvement to be pleased about, however, some of the issues wrapped up in leather production cannot be avoided. 

Even when putting aside the harm to animals, or the environmental impacts of leather, the trauma associated with transforming animals into materials is largely inseparable from the process. These are not small or insignificant issues, and if you’re looking to avoid contributing to them, there are plenty of great alternatives to leather available!

Look out for more sustainable alternatives to leather, like recycled materials, 100% biodegradable and natural MIRUM, AppleSkin, Desserto, Piñatex, VEGEA and other options made from a blend of plant-based and synthetic materials, as well as totally natural choices like cork and washable paper. 

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About the Author
Emma Håkansson is the founder and director of Collective Fashion Justice which seeks to create a total ethics fashion system that prioritizes the life and wellbeing of non-human & human animals, as well as the planet, before profit & production. She has written countless articles on ethics, sustainability, and fashion, and has two books due out over the next two years.

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How Sustainable Is Silk? & Its Ethical Alternatives

Silk has been a highly demanded fabric for more than 5,000 years. It is delicate, lustrous and beautiful, and makes the perfect fabric for scarves, blouses and dresses.

A legend says that silk was discovered in 2640 BC by Chinese Empress Xi Ling Shi while drinking a cup of tea under a mulberry tree. A silkworm cocoon fell into her cup and, as it dissolved, the Empress understood that the cocoon was made of beautiful threads that could be used to create fine fabrics.  

Silk has been produced since then, mainly in Asia, but sericulture became popular in the whole world as the centuries passed. Today, silk production accounts for less than 0.2% of the world’s fiber market, but it is a multi-billion dollar industry. ‘

Silk has unique properties, but it raises various ethical and sustainable issues. It’s also one of the most expensive fabrics, and owning silk clothing requires constant dry-cleaning. 

So, should you invest in silk fabrics for your wardrobe? You’ll find out in this article! You’ll also learn about some more ethical and sustainable alternatives to choose instead.

WHAT IS SILK AND HOW IS IT MADE?

What is silk?

Silk is a natural fiber created by certain insects and arachnids to form their cocoons or webs, and it can be used to produce textiles.

In commercial applications, the most common silk is made with the filaments from the cocoons of the larvae of domesticated mulberry silkworms Bombyx mori. The silkworms are reared in captivity to create fabrics: this whole industry is called sericulture.

The production of silk is believed to have started in China during the Neolithic period, and it had played an essential role in the Chinese rural economy for millennia. 

In the 2nd century AD, the practice was established in India, and as centuries passed, sericulture was exported to other parts of the world, especially the Middle East. Thanks to the Silk Road, it quickly reached the Mediterranean, and later, Western Europe where it flourished until the 19th century.

After the Second World War, nylon and other synthetic fabrics became popular and widely produced in the fashion industry, leading to the weakening of the silk industry. But silk did not disappear.

Nowadays, silk is used in various industries, the most common one being fashion. You can buy many clothing pieces made with silk, including blouses, shirts, lingerie, dresses and pajamas. Silk can also be found in home textiles like bedding, duvets, curtains and rugs.

It has many other industrial and commercial applications, and it’s used to make parachutes, bicycle tires and surgical sutures to name a few. 

China is still by far the main silk producer, with around 60% of the world’s production.

How is it made?

Sericulture has existed for thousands of years, but it’s still a very labor-intensive process. 

Silk production almost always involves rearing silkworms in captivity, and we usually use domesticated mulberry silkworms Bombyx mori.  

It is possible to produce wild silk, using silkworms that live in the wild, like the tussah silkmoths. However, this type of production is a lot less predictable and more difficult, because the silk moths that are used cannot be domesticated.

The first step in the production process of conventional silk is to gather thousands of silkworms to harvest their cocoons. Female silk moths have around 300 to 500 eggs at once, and those eggs are incubated in a controlled environment until they become larvae.

Larvae are fed with mulberry leaves, and after six weeks, silkworms start spinning their cocoon by rotating their bodies around 300,000 times.  

A silkworm needs three to eight days to create a single strand of silk that measures about 100 meters long. Around 2,500 silkworms are needed to create one pound of raw silk.

When all the silkworms have finished spinning their cocoons, silk producers place the cocoons in boiling water to dissolve the gum holding the cocoon together, killing the silkworm in the process. Each silk thread is then slowly reeled from the cocoon in individual threads and wound on a reel.

After being washed, degummed, bleached, and dried, silk threads are immersed in a dye bath to soak up a given color. Dyed silk threads are then spun onto a bobbin, and the weaving process can begin.

Two sets of threads are interlaced so that they lock around each other to form a durable fabric. Silk can be woven in various ways, which results in different finishes of the silk.

At this point, a pattern can be printed on the fabric, either using digital printing, or the more traditional screen printing method. 

Finally, the silk fabric needs to be finished, which is usually done by using different chemical treatments that give the fabric specific properties, like crease-proofing and fire resistance. 

The silk fabric can then be sewn and used to create all kinds of new products, including fashion pieces.

SHOULD YOU USE SILK?

How practical is silk clothing?

Silk has unique properties…

This fabric is lightweight and lustrous, and it has a soft feel. Its luminosity and sheen make it look luxurious, and it falls naturally, which is ideal for creating elegant clothing. 

Silk is also a great material that takes well to dyes, meaning that you can usually find all kinds of colors when looking for silk clothing. In addition, it is very strong and doesn’t get damaged easily: one filament of silk is stronger than a comparable filament of steel! 

Silk clothes are great to wear in the summer, as they keep you cool and can absorb a lot of moisture before feeling wet. In the winter, silk helps keep warm air close to the skin, making it a warm material that’s often used for its insulation properties. 

All these great characteristics have made it a very demanded fabric throughout the world.  

But it comes with its disadvantages…

One of the most significant disadvantages of silk is that it is more expensive than most other fabrics. As a result, silk clothes are often seen as a luxury that many people cannot afford. 

It is also more challenging to take proper care of silk fabrics as it is recommended to dry-clean them. You might hand wash them, but you should first test for a color bleed on a small area on the inside. 

Silk clothing shouldn’t go in the washing machine nor the dryer, which is inconvenient for many people. It also needs to be steam-ironed, but only on a low setting, and you shouldn’t put it in direct sunlight as it can fade easily. 

If you aren’t careful with these recommendations, you risk damaging your silk fabrics. 

How eco-friendly is silk?

The main environmental benefit of silk is that it is a durable, natural material, so it doesn’t shed microplastics into the environment while in the wash. 

Untreated silk is also entirely biodegradable, even though chemicals, dyes and blended fabrics may hinder its biodegradability.

However, according to the Sustainable Apparel Coalition’s Higg Index, silk has a worse environmental impact than synthetic fabrics, and it has a huge global warming potential. 

As a single mulberry tree feeds 100 silkworms, and we need 3,000 cocoons to create one yard of fabric, sericulture involves growing a huge quantity of mulberry trees. Even though fewer chemicals are sprayed on mulberry trees than other crops, like cotton, pesticides and fertilizers are usually used to grow them. 

It contributes to the pollution of groundwaters and may cause serious environmental issues, such as eutrophication. Eutrophication leads to the spread of harmful algae in the environment and usually causes dead zones.

Silk production is also very energy and water-intensive. Boiling the water to cook the cocoons takes enormous amounts of energy and water. Temperature control in silkworm rearing facilities, transportation, dying and processing are other steps in the production process that require large amounts of energy. In addition, the silk is cleaned at different stages, which means that high volumes of water are used.

A lot of toxic chemicals, including dyes, are usually used during silk production, and untreated waters are regularly dumped into waterways.

Owning silk itself can be unsustainable as it requires dry cleaning, and dry cleaning solvents are very harmful to the environment.

How ethical is it? 

One of the main reasons why sericulture is widely criticized is because it raises different ethical issues.

Conventional silk production involves boiling alive and killing the silkworms in their cocoons before they mature into moths. It is estimated that around 1,000 animals are killed to create a single silk shirt. Only a small percentage are allowed to mature, and they are used for reproduction purposes. 

Once silkworms have mated, males are discarded, and females are crushed to death. Female silkworms are then checked under a microscope to make sure they are not sick. If a disease is detected, their eggs are destroyed as well. 

Another ethical issue is that child labor is not uncommon in the silk industry. In 2003, the non-profit organization Human Rights Watch found that hundreds of thousands of children in India were working 12 or more hours per day, six to seven days a week. Some were as young as five years old! 

Those children breathe toxic fumes and smoke daily, regularly have to dip their hands in boiling water, and are in contact with dead worms that can cause infections. They can easily get injured by other activities, cannot go to school, and are often beaten by their employers. There is no evidence that such practices have stopped since 2003.

Workers in the silk industry are also exposed to the chemicals that they are touching and breathing on a daily basis, at multiple stages during the production process. Those chemicals are very harmful to their health: they are linked to various diseases and deaths, and some of them are carcinogens. 

A final point to consider is that almost all workers in the silk industry are located in low-income countries where workers are regularly exploited, paid unfair wages that aren’t enough to live, and offered inhumane working conditions. 

MORE ETHICAL OR SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVES TO CONVENTIONAL SILK

Conventional silk production is not ethical nor sustainable. However, there are alternative ways to produce silk that are greener and more ethical and that you might prefer instead of buying conventional silk. 

Peace silk

Peace silk, or Ahimsa silk, is the most common alternative to conventional silk. The main reason why this type of silk is "more ethical" is that moths are allowed to emerge and fly away before their cocoons are boiled safely. It means that no moth is boiled alive during the production process.

While peace silk is better than conventional silk, it still has a significant drawback to be aware of. After thousands of years of selective breeding, domesticated silkworms used in silk production are not "made" to live out of their cocoons. 

They are unable to see and fly properly and cannot protect themselves from predators. As a result, they usually die quickly once they emerge from their cocoons. 

So peace silk production is less cruel than conventional silk production, but it is still not ideal. It is also not much better in terms of environmental footprint.  

Wild silk

Wild silk, or Tussar silk, is made from the cocoons of Tussar silkworms found in open forests. Their cocoons are usually harvested after the moths have emerged, making it a more ethical alternative to conventional silk.   

Wild silkworms eat multiple types of plants, so they produce a less consistent fabric, but it's more durable. Fewer chemicals are also used to make the fabric.

However, some companies that use "wild silk" harvest the cocoons with the larvae still inside. So, while wild silk is supposed to be better for the silkworms, it is difficult to say whether all companies producing wild silk are truly waiting for silkworms to hatch and fly away. 

Oeko-Tex or GOTS-certified organic silk

GOTS-certified organic silk is a more sustainable alternative to conventional silk. It is produced very similarly to conventional silk, but no pesticides or other harmful chemicals are used. 

Everything in the production process is organic, and the silkworms get to eat a more varied diet instead of mulberry leaves alone. 

Oeko-tex certified silk is another more sustainable option. It means that from raw materials to the end product, the silk is free of toxic chemicals, healthy and better for the environment.  

However, whether you choose to buy Oeko-Tex or GOTS-certified silk, the silkworms are still killed before they have the chance to leave their cocoons. So organic silk is more eco-friendly but no more ethical than conventional silk. 

Recycled silk

You cannot go wrong by choosing recycled silk! Used silk fabrics have been reused and recycled into new ones, and it is done without the ethical and sustainable issues of producing virgin silk. No additional silkworm is killed, and recycling a fabric also requires fewer resources to be used. 

Vegan silk alternatives 

If you're not comfortable wearing clothing made from animals, there are some vegan silk-like fabrics you may want to try. 

Lotus silk is one of them: it is made by spinning the long roots of the lotus flower. Lotus plants are grown without pesticides and require very little water. 

Other silk-like fabrics you can find are pineapple silk and banana silk. Both are made as a by-product of the fruit industry, so they're very sustainable fabrics, saving waste and resources. 

Cactus silk is not to be ignored too! It is made using a subspecies of succulents that need very little water and no chemicals to grow. 

The brand Bolt Threads also created "spider" silk. However, it is not made using spiders but by fermenting yeast, water and sugar, and it's very similar to real spider silk.

All these vegan alternatives are great options, and they're a lot more sustainable and ethical than conventional silk!  

CONCLUSION

Thanks to its various characteristics, silk has been a highly demanded fabric for thousands of years.

However, conventional silk is not made ethically as it requires boiling live silkworms while still in their cocoons, and child labor is not uncommon in this industry. 

It's also not sustainable because sericulture is very energy and water-intensive, and a lot of chemicals are added to the fabric. 

Fortunately, there are more ethical or eco-friendly alternatives to conventional silk. They're not all perfect in terms of ethics or sustainability, but they're still better. 

Recycled silk and vegan silk-like alternatives might be the most sustainable and ethical options.

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About the Author:

Eva Astoul is a French freelance writer, specializing in content related to sustainability, simple living, and a growth-focused healthy lifestyle. She runs her own blog, Green With Less, to inspire people to live a more minimalist and sustainable life.

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How to Recycle clothes

No matter how much care we take curating our wardrobes, there inevitably comes a time in the lifecycle of any piece of clothing when it no longer fits us, we simply don’t want it anymore, or it has been so worn and well-loved over the years that it has started to fall apart.

The question for any conscious consumer then becomes: what happens to our old clothes when we recycle them, and what are the most sustainable options for our old and unwanted clothes? 

Our Clothing Waste Problem

In her book A Life Less Throwaway: The Lost Art of Buying For Life, Tara Button shares that the average woman in 1930 owned nine outfits, whereas we now buy an average of 67 items of clothing every year. Research shows that the average modern American discards 81 pounds of clothing a year, and the Environmental Protection Agency reported that US landfills received 11.3 million tons of unwanted textiles (predominantly unwanted clothing) in 2018. 

Yet this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to clothing waste: the large majority of our unwanted clothing is shipped abroad either to used clothing markets or overflowing landfill sites abroad—out of sight, out of mind, for us at least. If we had to keep our own clothing waste, our domestic landfills would be well past crisis point by now.

Fast fashion prioritizes speed and low prices, which means that the quality of our clothing has deteriorated, as well as increasing the amount of clothing that is produced and consumed. As a result, clothing tends to break more easily, and repairing clothing is often perceived to be more effort or expensive than simply buying new; inevitably, more clothing is also thrown away. Synthetic fibers, which release toxic chemicals into the water system when we wash them, as well as into the environment when they’re discarded, can be difficult to recycle, even if we try to avoid sending them directly to landfill.

It’s not all bad news, though: in recent years, we’ve also seen a resurgence in the popularity of second-hand clothing, mending clothing, and the use of recycled (and recyclable) fabrics. Many ethical fashion brands have been evolving to think about not just the ethics of where their clothing comes from, but also where it will end up, striving to close the loop and embrace a circular design model.

It’s important for every conscious consumer to understand what happens to our recycled clothes so that we can make the most sustainable choice with each item of clothing we’re ready to discard. Before we talk about recycling clothing, it’s helpful to think about what happens to donated clothes, as a large proportion of donated clothes end up heading to recycling plants, too. 

What Happens to Donated Clothes? 

The first step for any charity or organization accepting donations is to sort the clothing into wearable or unwearable categories. The wearable donations are classified as “first grade”, and will generally go on to be sold in second-hand clothing shops or even in second-hand clothing markets abroad. 

Unfortunately, there isn’t a whole lot of transparency in the industry, but estimates of how much donated clothing falls in the first grade (i.e. resellable) category range from around 10-50 percent. Adam Baruchowitz, founder of Wearable Collections, a New York-based non-profit that collects used clothing in the city, says that “For any bag you collect, 50 percent is going to be wearable and 50 percent is going to be used for other purposes.” Meanwhile, Lucy Siegle reported that around 10 percent of the approximately 300,000 tons of donated garments in the UK each year was re-sold in domestic shops in aid of charity. 

Other clothing will be exported and sold in second hand-clothing markets; in fact, research shows that a third of all globally donated clothes are re-sold in Sub-Saharan Africa. While there’s certainly a high demand for Western clothing, the huge influx of used clothing from countries like the USA and the UK is a mixed blessing for locals: Dr. Andrew Brooks, author of Clothing Poverty, shares that between 1975 and 2000, Ghana’s textile and clothing employment fell by 80 percent, while Nigeria’s 200,000-person textile industry has been greatly reduced, too. Kenya’s local textiles industry has been so disabled by the influx of clothing from overseas that their government fought a proposal to ban imported textiles, saying that they wouldn’t be able to clothe their population without second-hand clothing. 

Where clothing lacks any resale value, this lower grade but still usable fabric will be sent to recycling facilities to be turned into new fibers or used for car seat filling and wiping rags for industrial machines. Some will also inevitably end up in landfills, either domestic or (more likely) abroad. 

Ultimately, when we donate our clothes, we hope that our closest purge is also positively impacting someone else’s life. However, we need to be careful that any clothing we donate is of good quality and in good repair because charities need quality, not quantity. People sorting through donated clothing report regularly finding bags of dirty, unwashed clothing—even dirty socks and underwear, which can’t be salvaged easily and so inevitably go straight to landfill. Furthermore, one bag of clothes with mildew can contaminate any other clothing they come into contact with; by donating dirty clothing, not only are you just creating extra unprofitable work for a charity, you’re also potentially making other perfectly good donated clothing unusable, too.

The first and most basic principle of donating used clothing is ensuring everything is clean, in good repair, and generally of  sellable quality. If you have items that meet this description, there are plenty of local options where you can donate your good quality clothing, from community clothing banks to organizations like Goodwill.

Meanwhile, there are several different options for any clothing that’s no longer of a sellable quality; first, we’ll explore the pros and cons of recycling and look into how to recycle sustainably.

What Happens to Recycled Clothes? 

Clothing that is sent to a recycling facility will be sorted by hand for the type of textiles, and then will be shredded, ground, and treated, going through a different process depending on what new life it is destined to have. Some might be turned into recycled fabric and make it back into your wardrobe in the form of a brand new garment. Other lower grade fabric will be used in less glamorous, though still useful, ways, such as insulation, padding, or industrial textiles.

Given that it takes synthetic materials hundreds of years to biodegrade (a minimum of 200 years for a polyester dress), it’s clearly important to keep fabric from heading to landfill. And, another benefit of the recycling industry is that it provides jobs that require skill and can’t be replaced easily by machines, which struggle to identify fabric without the ability to feel it. 

However, recycling is not a straightforward win because many synthetic fabrics are difficult to recycle in an environmentally friendly way. Serge Lazarev, founder of Green Tree Textile Recycling in New York City, says that materials like Spandex and Lycra are problematic: “When elastic and rubber mixed in with the textile material, we don’t have a way to separate it.”

If you decide to send your clothing to a local recycling plant rather than reusing it in your own home, there are a couple of best practices to bear in mind. Firstly, check out the info provided by your local municipality to find out what options they offer, and make sure you pay attention to the information they share about what to send and how to prepare and sort it. 

Avoid buying new synthetic fabrics wherever possible, but if you do have a synthetic item to recycle, try to find a specific recycling program for synthetic fabrics to make sure they have the expertise to do it properly; one way to do this is to get in touch with circular fashion brands who use recycled fabric and ask them for advice about which companies they use to source their upcycled fabrics so that you can donate your clothing directly. Supporting brands that use recycled and sustainable materials is a great way to vote with your wallet and support the recycled fabric industry; Patagonia, Thought, and many other ethical fashion brands use things like recycled polyester and plastic bottles in their fabrics.

Some brands run specific recycling programs themselves; Madewell accepts old jeans to use as insulation in houses built in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity (and they’ll give you a discount on your next pair of Madewell jeans in exchange).  

What Can We Do Instead of Recycling and Donating Old Clothes?

So, if we should only donate high-quality clothing, and if recycling should only be done with care or as a last resort, what are our other options for old or unwanted clothes?

Ania Grzeszek is a textile artist and a big advocate of visible mending. As she explains, “recycling or donating [clothing] is simply shifting the responsibility to someone else, but is not the most sustainable solution. The easiest way to reduce the ecological impact of our clothing is to simply wear it longer (and also wash it less!). By extending the life of the garment, you literally help save the planet and opt-out from the fast-fashion cycle.” Ania encourages people to embrace their creativity and to normalize mending clothing. “This is one of the biggest shifts I noticed in the past years,” she says, “from patches and mends being frowned upon, to fixed clothes being now a way to express your views, and also personal style… You don't have to be good at it from the start, just experiment with it and see where your creativity takes you.”

Photo credit: Kaliko

Fashion Revolution co-founder Orsola de Castro also celebrates the rise of the mending trend, but her new book Loved Clothes Last also explores the need for a diverse range of options for all budgets when it comes to ethical fashion. She points out that mending clothing and wearing hand-me-downs or second-hand clothing used to be a sign of low income and low social status, and that as this becomes more socially acceptable, even celebrated, we must avoid making fast fashion simply the latest way we stigmatize the less affluent. 

The fact that more people are embracing used clothing, and that the stigma of keeping and mending and passing down clothes is fading, is all great news—as long as it doesn’t mean that the re-sale price of secondhand clothing rises, pricing out people who used to rely on used clothing stores to dress themselves and their families.

Use the guidance below to help you decide on the best way to recycle or upcycle your clothing; you and your wardrobe are unique, and so the answer will look a little different for everyone.  

How to Recycle or Upcycle Clothing That’s Still In Good Condition

1. Clothing Swaps

Host a clothes swapping party with your friends (covid-permitting, of course), or share photos of items you think might suit a friend or family member, telling them you thought of them and wondered if they’d like the item you’re ready to part with. Many brands like tonlé host clothes swaps on their own platforms now, too.

2. Re-selling

Why not earn some money from the clothing and accessories you no longer want, and ensure they go directly to a good home rather than to landfill? There are so many different re-selling apps to choose from; you’re spoilt for choice.

Image: Basic Revolution

3. Investing in clothes from circular fashion brands

Supporting brands like that use recycled materials, or better yet, use recycled materials and also give their customers the ability to send their clothing directly back to be recycled by the company, is a powerful way to ensure the future is circular and waste-free.

Basic Revolution is a great example of a company doing this. Finding a resource that can truly recycle old clothing (especially things like hole-y socks!) is incredibly difficult since they'll likely just get thrown away.

Basic Revolution, however, is helping to fill that void and provide sustainably and ethically made basics that include clothing recycling for your worn-out basics. So when you purchase a pack of socks, for example, you can send your old items to them to be broken down and turned into insulation them or (if still in good condition) to be sorted by their recycler and then given to charities to be reused.

4. Donating good quality items

Donating good quality clothing to clothing banks or charitable organizations is a good option too, as long as you make sure you’re not just using them as dumping grounds. A good rule of thumb is to do a gut check and if you don’t think you’d be able to sell a piece on a re-selling app, it might not be re-sellable for a charity, either.

Image: Basic Revolution (who can help you recycle your old socks!)

How to Recycle or Upcycle Clothing That’s Damaged or Worn

1. Teach yourself some basic mending skills.

Whether you go for invisible or visible mending, there’s a lot to be gained from taking the time to sew on buttons, darn holes, and patch fraying places in your clothing. You can keep things simple or get creative and experimental—it’s totally up to you and what works for your style.  

2. Outsource your mending.

Not handy with a needle and thread, or short on time? There are plenty of professionals out there who can help you if you don’t have the time or inclination to learn yourself. The repair economy is a growing sector, and it’s great to encourage this if you can.

3. Upcycle your old clothes at home.

If you’re a crafty type (or know someone who is), there are plenty of fun ways you can re-use old fabric in your home. We’ve shared a few ideas to get you started below, but really the options are limitless.

4. Recycle responsibly.

If all else fails, recycling should be our last resort, instead of just throwing fabric in the trash. Just make sure you’ve taken the time to look into the best local recycling options for the type of fabric you’d like to recycle. 

8 Inspiring Upcycled Fabric Projects For Your Home

Once you’re ready to embrace a little in-house recycling, it’s a great idea to invest in your very own rag basket where you can keep any discarded clothing that’s beyond repair and can now be used for household cleaning and craft projects. It can help to have a sewing machine, but you can do a lot with a simple needle and thread.

1. Patching

Sometimes, using a contrasting fabric to patch a piece of fraying clothing can be a fun style statement. If your style is more minimalist, you can always try this on kids’ clothing first, as their clothing is usually more colorful, and it might feel like the stakes are a little lower, too.

2. Alternative window dressings or framed art.

I was really inspired by the creativity of my neighbor when I saw that she’d created lace stained-glass-style window panels with old pieces of lace she’d saved over the years; they make a beautiful alternative to privacy blinds or lace curtains. Even if you don’t have the skills or inclination to try something like this yourself, you could consider commissioning something similar from a local artist.

Image credit: Sophie Caldecott

3. Quilts

Quilting may be a rather complex art, but it’s also a lovely way to reuse old clothes with sentimental value. If you’re a beginner to quilt-making, keep things simple with simple squares of fabric, and go from there.

4. Rag rugs

Rag rugs, also called Toothbrush or Amish style rugs, are a classic way to recycle old clothes at home. It may look intimidating at first, but with the help of this handy video tutorial from Barri-Jayne Makes, you’ll soon be hooked.

5. Cushion covers

Atia Azmi of The Bright Blooms makes a lot of her own clothing from scratch, but points out that you don’t have to be as ambitious as she is to create something new for your home from old or unwanted clothes. Save sweaters you accidentally shrank in the wash (we all do it) and turn them into cushion covers, cardigans, or mittens.

6. Wrapped clothes hangers

Take inspiration from Kristen, founder of Upcycle My Stuff, and give your ugly plastic clothes hangers a pretty makeover by wrapping strips of fabric tightly around them, securing them with glue—no sewing needed.

Image credit: Upcycle My Stuff

7. Hair scrunchies

While scrunchies are back in style, why not use some old fabric scraps to make yourself or your kids a brand new hair accessory? All you need is a small amount of attractive fabric and some elastic for one of the simplest sewing projects out there.

8. Bunting

Fabric bunting is one of the easiest craft projects to try with old fabric, and if you like the results, you can keep it after every celebration and re-use it again and again. This tassel bunting from Upcycle My Stuff is no-sew, so you won’t even have to get a needle and thread out.

Image credit: Upcycle My Stuff

As crafter Barrina Mills of Barri-Jayne Makes says, “Using your old textiles to create something brand new is such a beautiful thing to do. You can start small and go as big as you like. You might even amaze yourself with what you can create. Then when someone admires your work, you can say with pride, ‘I made that!’.” 

Whether you’re a crafty type or more into swapping, re-selling, or recycling with intention, there’s a sustainable option for your old and unwanted clothing out there for you. Let’s strive for a future in which we consume less new clothing and virgin textiles, make what we already have in our wardrobes last longer, and ultimately make sure any unwanted clothing doesn’t end up in a landfill. 

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About the Author

Sophie Caldecott is a freelance writer living in a cottage on the edge of the moor in the South-West of England. She writes about grief, empathy, ethical fashion, and the things that connect us and make us human. You’ll most likely find her cozied up by the fire with a mug of hot chocolate and a good book.

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The Coolest Innovative Fabrics in Sustainable Fashion

Whether you are shopping for new clothes online or in a mall, you probably always come across clothing made from the same materials: polyester, cotton, nylon, wool, leather... 

If you are looking for eco-friendly alternatives to those, the clothes you may be picking might be made of linen, organic cotton, recycled polyester or hemp.

But how many times did you find a clothing item made from pineapples, cacti or bananas? How about textiles made with mushrooms or algae? 

Yes, all of those alternatives do exist! Not only are they very innovative and unique, but they are also great sustainable options! 

You might have never come across any of these fabrics yet, but more and more brands have started using them to create eco-friendly products. 

In this article, we have compiled a list of 17 innovative fabrics that are making the fashion industry more sustainable. Let’s discover how cool they are!

WHY ARE THESE FABRICS INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE?

All the fabrics we are mentioning in this article are fascinating discoveries that, in one way or another, are made more sustainably. 

Many of them are made using by-products of certain industries, meaning that products that would have been discarded are turned into brand new fabrics. It reduces waste and does not increase the demand for new resources to be extracted from the Earth. 

The production process of these innovative fabrics is also generally gentler for the planet. For instance, it may use a lot less water and fewer chemicals than most conventional fabrics. It may release fewer CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.  

Some of these fabrics are recycled textiles, and others are artificially made in a lab. Although a few of them are partly produced with synthetic materials, they are overall a lot more sustainable than synthetic textiles. 

No matter which one you want to try, you can feel good about buying one of these innovative fabrics!

SUSTAINABLE FABRICS THAT ARE REVOLUTIONIZING THE FASHION INDUSTRY

1) Apple leather

Apple leather is a bio-based material made using apple by-products from the juice industry. 

When apples are pressed to create juice, we are left with apple pomace and peels. Those by-products contain a lot of cellulose content, which is great for producing new fabrics! 

To do so, apple pomace is reduced to a powder, and once it has been processed, it is combined with a synthetic material, polyurethane. The final result is what we call apple leather.

Apple leather is soft and durable, and has a much lower environmental footprint compared to cowhide leather. It is often used to produce shoes and small accessories like wallets or handbags. 

Allégorie, Oliver Co., Veerah and Samara are a few brands using apple leather to design beautiful, sustainable products. 

2) Leaf leather

Leaf leather is a plant-based leather alternative made from tree leaves (generally Teak leaves). It is strong and water-resistant, and the leather features the natural design of leaves, making it unique and beautiful. 

To produce leaf leather, fallen Teak leaves are collected and no trees are harmed to do so. The leaves are soaked in water, dyed and laid flat together to dry. 

The drying process bonds them, which leaves us with a large sheet of leaf material that is then mended with cotton fabric. Before it can be sewn into accessories, a thin BOPP film is applied to make the fabric waterproof and more durable. 

Tree Tribe and Jungley both create cool wallets, bags and journals out of leaf leather.

3) Vegea

Vegea, also known as wine leather, is a fabric made from leftover grape skins from winemaking, vegetable oils as well as other natural fibers from the agroindustry.  

It is estimated that for every 10 liters of wine produced, 2.5 liters of waste are created. Thankfully, this waste can be upcycled into one square meter of wine leather!

To produce Vegea, the grape marc, which consists of grape skins, stalks and seeds, has first to be dried. After this step, it is combined with vegetable oil and water-based polyurethane. The mix creates a bio-based material that is coated into a fabric. The production process excludes toxic chemicals, dangerous solvents and heavy metals. 

Some great brands that use Vegea are Ganni and Pangaia. 

4) Mushroom leather

Mylo, or mushroom leather, is a vegan leather alternative developed by the company Bolt Threads and designed to have a minimal environmental impact. It is made from mycelium, which is the branching underground root system of mushrooms. 

Bolt Threads uses mycelium cells and makes them grow on beds of organic matter in a vertical farming facility that is 100% powered by renewable energy. 

Together, the cells form an interconnected 3D network that is then processed by the company. It is tanned and dyed, transforming it into a leather-like material. 

Mylo is soft, supple and durable, which makes it ideal to use in the fashion industry. Sustainable brand Stella McCartney recently launched a bustier top and trousers that are the first-ever garments made from Mylo. 

5) Piñatex

Pineapple leather, or Piñatex, is an innovative natural textile made from pineapple leaf fiber, which is an agricultural waste product.  

When pineapples are harvested, their leaves are collected and the long fibers are extracted with special machines. After they are washed, the fibers are dried and they go through a purification process to eliminate impurities. 

The fluff-like pineapple leaf fiber that is left is mixed with a corn-based polylactic acid and transformed into a non-woven mesh called Piñafelt. Finally, the Piñafelt is colored using GOTS-certified pigments and coated with a resin made from polyurethane to make it even more durable and waterproof. 

Piñatex has been used by over 1,000 brands, including Svala and No Saints. The company that manufactures Piñatex, Ananas Anam, is a certified B Corporation. 

6) Nettle fiber

Made from nettle plants, nettle fiber was already used by humans during the Bronze Age. 

Over the centuries, the use of nettle fibers to make clothes was very popular, but it quickly declined when we started using cotton as an alternative, which was easier and more convenient to grow.  

However, clothes made from nettle fibers are more sustainable than those made of cotton, because nettles need less water and pesticides to grow. 

Nettle fibers are extracted from the nettle plant stem and are then carded and spun. This process creates a strong cord that can be used to produce ropes and fishing nets, or when blended with cotton or wool, to create clothing. 

Pangaia has an entire denim collection made from wild Himalayan nettle!

7) Orange fiber

Did you know that each year, 110 to 120 million tons of citrus waste are generated around the world? An Italian company, Orange Fiber, decided to do something about it and created a sustainable fabric made from orange juice by-products. 

To produce orange fiber, the company uses hundreds of thousands of tons of orange waste. It extracts the cellulose from the peels using its patented process and turns it into a fiber that is spun into yarn. 

Then, it is woven into a silk-like fabric that is soft and lightweight. It can also be shiny or opaque depending on the final use. 

Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo launched in 2017 a capsule collection of women’s wear made from citrus by-products in collaboration with Orange Fiber. 

8) Cactus leather

Cacti are amazing plants! They regenerate the soil naturally, help prevent soil erosion and desertification, and they can absorb carbon dioxide up to 30% of their body mass. But they can also be turned into sustainable fabrics! 

Developed in Mexico, cactus leather is made from Opuntia Cactus, also called Nopal. Only the mature leaves of cacti are harvested, meaning that no cacti are harmed in the process. Cacti also need very little water to grow, and there is no need for artificial irrigation or pesticides. 

After the leaves are cut, they are mashed and dried for a few days. They are then mixed with non-toxic chemicals, and finally, attached to a backing. 

More and more brands are designing products with cactus leather, including Allégorie, Miomojo and KEVA. 

9) ECONYL®

Fishing nets have been made from nylon for more than 50 years now, and they are the biggest source of large plastic pollution in the oceans. 

Thankfully, the brand Aquafil found a way to upcycle and reuse abandoned fishing nets! It created ECONYL®, a sustainable fabric made of recycled nylon yarn from fishing nets, textile production scraps and other synthetic waste. 

Thanks to a regeneration and purification process, the nylon is recycled back to its original purity. It is then processed into yarns and other polymers. The final material, ECONYL®, can be recycled infinitely, without losing its quality. 

Producing ECONYL® lowers the global warming impact of nylon by up to 90% compared to making conventional nylon. 

Patagonia, Stella McCartney, Girlfriend Collective and Peony all have products made from ECONYL®. 

10) Parblex

Parblex is an innovative bioplastic made using potato waste and developed by the company Chip[s] Board. 

The company does not disclose much information about its exact production process, but it involves different steps like fermentation, purification, and then polymerization. 

Parblex is made from potato peelings, and it is mixed with other agricultural waste, such as wood flour or walnut shells, to strengthen it and give it a certain texture and color.

The material is biodegradable and recyclable, and Chip[s] Board does not use any toxic resins or chemicals derived from oil to produce it. It also reincorporates offcuts back into the production process. 

The bioplastic has already been used by the eyewear brand Cubitts London, and to make buttons by Isabel Fletcher. 

11) Algae-based textile

Over the past few years, different companies, like Algaeing, have been revolutionizing the fashion industry by developing fabrics and dyes made from algae. 

Algaeing works with another company, Algatech, which grows algae using vertical farming, meaning that algae are grown indoors in vertical stacks using solar energy and seawater. 

Algaeing is then able to convert algae into a liquid that can be used as a textile dye. By adding cellulose to the liquid, the company is also able to create fibers for the textile industry. 

The production process is energy efficient and free of hazardous chemicals. We also need 80% less water to produce algae-based fibers compared to the production of cotton. 

A few brands using algae in their products are Hylo Athletics, Dr.Scholl’s Shoes and Pangaia. 

12) Mango leather

In the United States, about 20% of mangoes in grocery stores are discarded, not to mention the huge quantities that are wasted before they even arrive on the supermarket shelves. 

Thankfully, some brands are taking action to reduce the number of wasted mangoes by turning them into new products. After sourcing discarded mangoes, these companies de-seed and pulp the fruit. 

Then, they mix it with a binding agent, water-based polyurethane, and pour the mix into large trays, before screeding the surface to make it smoother.  

When it is dry, the material is colored and waterproofed. The whole process is eco-friendly, and it creates a strong leather-like material, mango leather.  

Allégorie uses mango leather to create their beautiful products. 

13) Lyocell (Tencel)

Lyocell is a type of rayon that has been gaining popularity in recent years as more and more brands have been making clothing from it. There are different kinds of lyocell, the most famous one being Tencel. 

Tencel is made from eucalyptus trees sourced from sustainably managed forests. The fibers are harvested, pulped, and mixed with a solvent, before being dried using a process called spinning. The mixture is pushed through small holes to create threads, it is chemically treated and the fibers are then spun into yarn. 

Tencel is made in a closed-loop system in which water and solvents are recycled. 

If you are looking for clothing made from Tencel, TAMGA Designs, Saint Basics, Amour Vert and Eileen Fisher all have products made with this awesome material!

14) Biofabricated leather

This biofabricated leather created by the company Modern Meadow is one of the most intriguing materials on this list! 

Modern Meadow makes its one-of-a-kind lab-grown material from collagen. More specifically, it grows a strain of yeast that produces collagen, which is a protein we can find in the skin.

The collagen is then purified, pressed into sheets and tanned, all without using animal products or toxic chemicals. The final material is very similar to cowhide leather, but it is stronger, thinner, lighter, more versatile and sustainable. 

The biofabricated leather made by Modern Meadow is not accessible yet. But thanks to all its beneficial properties, this unique material deserves recognition and its future looks promising. 

15) Lotus fabric

Made from the lotus flower, lotus fabric looks like a blend of silk and linen, and it is breathable and wrinkle-resistant, which makes it ideal for clothes and accessories. It is also soft to the touch, stain-resistant and 100% waterproof. 

The production process of lotus fabric is inspired by ancient techniques. It is sustainable and very time-consuming since it is done by hand. 

Once the stems of the lotus flowers are harvested, workers delicately extract the microfibers from the stems by hand. The fibers are then dried, and they are carefully rolled into a thread that will be used to weave clothing. 

You can find beautiful clothes and accessories made from lotus flowers at Jungley and Lotus Paradis. 

16) Spinnova fabric

Finnish company Spinnova created a sustainable fiber made from wood, agricultural waste & textile waste, by observing how spiders spin their webs.

The production process of Spinnova fabric uses 99% less water than cotton production, generates minimal emissions, and does not involve toxic chemicals. 

To produce this fabric, the company starts by refining cellulose made of FSC-certified wood. The pulp then flows through a nozzle at high pressure, where the fibers rotate and align with the flow. After that, the fibers are dried and collected, before being spun into yarn. 

The resulting fabric is 100% biodegradable and recyclable, which means that it is made in a closed-loop system. 

The North Face, Bergans and Marimekko partnered with Spinnova to launch their own collections made of Spinnova fabric. 

17) Banana fiber

Used since the 13th century, banana fiber is an eco-friendly fabric that has been slowly but surely revolutionizing the fashion industry. 

Banana fiber is made from a banana tree’s stems and stalks. The stems are actually a by-product of the banana tree because they are generally discarded when the fruits are harvested, which can only be done once in the tree’s lifetime.

There are different production methods, but the most usual one involves stripping off the sheaths of the banana stem, layer by layer until we are left with only the fibers. Then, the fibers are dried, and finally, they are knotted together using a twisting technique. 

If you are looking for clothing made of banana fiber, Milo+Nicki and Valani have everything you need. 

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About the Author

Eva Astoul is a French freelance writer, specializing in content related to sustainability, simple living, and a growth-focused healthy lifestyle. She runs her own blog, Green With Less, to inspire people to live a more minimalist and sustainable life.

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