fastcompany.com
Wanted: Sustainable, Cheap Alternatives to Cotton
BY LYDIA DISHMANFri Dec 10, 2010
There’s been hand-wringing aplenty this year as cotton prices have risen to heights not seen since the Reconstruction. (Think 1870, readers, not 2008.) Yet while the price of a pound of cotton tipped historic heights of $1.52 on November 10, garment manufacturers are hedging their bets. Raw materials make up between a quarter and half of the cost to produce a garment, so many haven’t purchased their supply of cotton hoping the price will drop. It has, a bit. Friday saw a decrease to $1.37.
In the meantime, several firms are busy engineering textiles that may provide a more sustainable--not to mention economical--alternative to "the fabric of our lives."
Flax: not just for breakfast anymore
We often think of flax as a health supplement. Indeed, the seeds of the plant have been touted to cure what ails by the likes of Charlemagne. But Naturally Advanced Technologies (NAT) figured out a way to blend the fibers with cotton to decrease production costs without the use of synthetics.
Developers of the proprietary CRAiLAR process, CEO Ken Barker says, "CRAiLAR flax is a cost-effective choice that won't force consumers to sacrifice cotton's desirable qualities." Not to mention that it’s abundant, and can be processed twice as efficiently as hemp.
But how does it feel? Like cotton, CRAiLAR flax is soft and great for use in standard issue T-shirts and jeans. Barker goes so far as to call it, "a plug-and-play for cotton."
More than that, notes Barker, it’s a potential solution to a global crisis. It’s cheaper than cotton, and flax requires no irrigation and little or no chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic flax can be grown in rotation with any other organic crop, for complete organic certification.
Says Barker, "Right now large brands are looking to reduce their cotton footprint with a more sustainable natural fiber alternative, as opposed to increasing their consumption of organic cotton, which is even more expensive than cotton, and harder to grow."
The first CRAiLAR flax garments should hit the racks in Fall 2011.
naturallyadvanced.com |
