The Other Side of Sustainable Textiles

It’s 2021, we’re all familiar with climate change, and it’s finally become cool and profitable to prioritize a sustainable supply chain. This is great news! Nearly everyone is on board at this point, and it’s no longer just a few outlier brands that are focusing on environmentally friendly products. Organic fibers, recycled synthetics, and slow fashion (the opposite of fast fashion) are all the rage. This is all thanks to a shift in the market based on the priorities of consumers. 

So what’s next? The textile industry, like any other industry, is extremely complex. Just because we’re doing our best to use some recycled plastic bottles in fabrics does not mean that the entire industry is suddenly environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, there is a whole other side to the industry that receives much less attention when it comes to the need for sustainable solutions.

Part of textile manufacturing that is still far from being sustainable is the finishing process that occurs after the base fabric itself has been created. In order to enhance visual and mechanical properties, fabric is typically altered through the application of coatings or laminates. These can make a textile water resistant, increase durability, and even change the aesthetics of it. Coatings and laminates are composed of a variety of things, but the one thing that most of them have in common is the use of toxic solvents.

The worst of these solvents are referred to as CMR solvents: carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic to reproduction. In case you hadn’t guessed, exposure to CMRs can have detrimental effects on human health. The problem is, even if you buy a jacket or backpack made 100% from organic materials or recycled plastics, it is likely still coated in toxic substances that destroy our bodies and our planet. In a sense, it’s like our industry is taking two steps forward and one step back every time solvent-based coatings are used on a ‘sustainable’ product.

Luckily, there are movements focused on phasing out CRM solvents and solvents in general. Bluesign (a Swedish company that sets environmental standards for textile manufacturing) is working on phasing out CRMs by 2024. Even luckier? There are already alternative options to coat textiles without using any solvents at all. Coatings can actually be water-based rather than solvent-based, which eliminates all toxic emissions.

The most important step at this stage is to make sure consumers (looking at you!) are aware that this issue even exists. The fact is, people do want what’s best for the environment, and once we are educated on an environmental issue we have the power to change it. We learned how bad virgin synthetic materials are for our planet, and now companies are flooding the market with recycled options. The next step towards truly sustainable products is to address the issue of toxic solvents in coatings and laminates.

So do some research, tell a friend, and start asking companies what they are doing to combat this problem!

Sources:

“Seeking Greener Solvents.” May 2008, Clean Room Technology.

“Bluesign Introduces New Concept for Critical Solvents.” September 2021, Fibre2Fashion.