How Environmentally Friendly is Cotton?

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Graham O

Tenderfoot
Jan 30, 2006
50
1
64
North Wales
The title sums it up really. How environmentally friendly is cotton? I appreciate that organic cotton is now appearing, but the last information I had was that cotton versus synthetics was finely balanced due to the pesticides put on the fields while the crop was growing.
Has anyone got any up to date information please?
Thanks
 

Fluxus

Forager
Jan 23, 2004
132
5
heaven
some more info on environmental imapcts of various materials can be found here

Add to this the environmental costs of transport and the potentially exploitative working conditions in many places where cotton is produced and it hits home.

Personally I handknit all my clothes from borage fibre grown organically in windowboxes. ;)
 

HuBBa

Forager
May 19, 2005
228
1
51
Borås, Sweden
www.hubbatheman.com
There are a few issues to consider here.

First off, what is the impact when directly producing. How much chemicals are used while producing it (Pestecides, fertelizers). What is the enviromental impact directly (ie. from pollution) and indirectly (from producing the chemicals). How much of natural forests are cut down to grow this.

Secondly. How much fuel / energy is used in refining it from raw material into final product (garnment, yarn/fabric). In some cases you need to apply a lot of additional chemicals to color it & to treat it for rot / moisture resistance. Again here it's both direct and indirect impact on the environment.

Thirdly you look at how much enviromental impact the product has when burned / recycled. If it's pure cotton, then it's no problems. If it's cotton that is refined + colored + treated for different things there might be a lot of impact. (Refere to the current discussions regarding fluorocarbons used for water-resistance.).

All these are quite important factor and they all add up. It may very well be that polyester, polyacetate and other synthetic fabrics are actually less of a enviromental impact. Right now there isn't a definate answer as there are a lot of research on it.

It's however something we all should be very aware of :)

Ps. the reason i happened to know this is because im right now taking a course in Textile Fabric science. Ds.
 

Lurch

Native
Aug 9, 2004
1,879
8
52
Cumberland
www.lakelandbushcraft.co.uk
I'm under the impression that hemp leaves a much smaller footprint than cotton. Further that the 'Reefer madness' and hype surrounding hemp/cannaboids back in the day was in no small part funded and encouraged by the cotton industry with the aim of crushing hemp as a viable cordage product.
 

ozzy1977

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
8,558
3
46
Henley
Is hemp avaliable as an serious alternative to cotton. I know quality wise its proberbly better, but, apart from the retro hippy tat avaliable, can you get hold of it?
 

gregorach

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 15, 2005
3,723
28
50
Edinburgh
Yeah, hemp fabrics are becoming quite widely available. I can't remember any names off-hand, but there are definitely a number of retailers currently selling hemp clothing. It's very fashionable in Australia (or at least it was when I was last there).

Production volumes are nowhere near cotton as yet, of course.

Then you get into a wonderfully complex question as to whether organic cotton is better (ecologically speaking) than non-organic hemp, and a whole raft of fair trade issues... ;)
 

addyb

Native
Jul 2, 2005
1,264
4
39
Vancouver Island, Canada.
Damn you Tagnut, you beat me to the hemp post!

Hemp is FAR more environmentally safer to grow, and a finished garment made from it is softer, longer lasting, and harder wearing. It has a 120 day complete growth cycle, and one acre of hemp will yield as much fibre as four acres of cotton.

The problem with hemp is that visually, it is impossible to differentiate from the marijuana plant. But, hemp does not contain THC (tetrahydracannabinol) so it has no psychosis effects.

In Canada, in 1998, hemp was legalized for growth purposes as a possible alternative to cotton. Because cotton is, as Graham says, very very bad for the environment. The USA unfortunately, refuses to recognize the differences between Cannabis Sativa L. (hemp) and it's "high" cousin - marijuana.

Cheers guys,

Adam
 

ship

Tenderfoot
Nov 27, 2005
94
0
60
NE UK
try reading Jack Herer,s book: the emperor wears no clothes, full of info on hemp, the man,s even got a strain of weed named after him, try www.onlinepot.org for a on-line read.
full table of contents, scroll down, it,s there :)

ship
 

Swampy Matt

Need to contact Admin...
Sep 19, 2004
93
1
Midlands
addyb said:
The problem with hemp is that visually, it is impossible to differentiate from the marijuana plant. But, hemp does not contain THC (tetrahydracannabinol) so it has no psychosis effects.

In Canada, in 1998, hemp was legalized for growth purposes as a possible alternative to cotton. Because cotton is, as Graham says, very very bad for the environment. The USA unfortunately, refuses to recognize the differences between Cannabis Sativa L. (hemp) and it's "high" cousin - marijuana.

Erm, Marijuana (grown to get high) is exactly the same plant as Hemp(grown for fibre). They are both Cannabis Sativa. The only difference is that marijuana is grown in a specific manner to optimise the amount of THC produced. (Kind of how maize/corn can be blue/red/yellow/multicoloured but still the same plant)

In terms that I hope wont offend the mods - In cold, damp northern climates, the plant will naturally grow tall and slender - perfect for fibre. In hot, and particularly dry climates (eg india, africa, middle east), the plant secretes resin to prevent excess evaporation of moisture contained in the buds. The resin contains the high levels of THC, making it perfect for getting stoned.

Unfortunately, the powers that be fail to see that even if you take seeds from the most potent dutch marijuana, and grow it outdoors in scotland, northern england, new england, vermont, etc all your going to get is smelly fibre making plants.
(flip side - take some 'hemp' seeds to egypt/india/morocco and it will contain enough THC to get you stoned.)

Throughout our textile using history, hemp has formed a much greater part than linen if certain sources are to be believed (Jack Herer being one of them). It certainly forms a larger part than cotton, which only became cheap, therefore popular around 100 years ago.
 

ozzy1977

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
8,558
3
46
Henley
Also hemp has far less of a problem with pest, so less pesticides are needed in the first place,(certainly a friend of mine years ago never had any problems with bugs when he grew a few plants, purely for a experiment of course :) ). It is about time Hemp came back in a big way.
 

addyb

Native
Jul 2, 2005
1,264
4
39
Vancouver Island, Canada.
Swampy,

Are you quite sure about that? As far as I know, the strain of hemp is "Cannabis Sativa L." and contains no psychosychosis properites. Marijuana is, as far as I know, found in two seperate strains; Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica.

Now, I could be wrong on this, but just last week I helped a friend edit a research paper on exactly this subject, with a bit of persuasion thrown in as to how environmentally harmful cotton is to the environment. And Ship, we used "The Emporer Wears No Clothes" heavily as a source. (It's an interesting book)

Anyway, I don't want to offend any posters or mods with this subject, if this topic needs to be closed, then I'm sorry for pushing the question. I'm just curious as to what the truth with hemp and THC is.

Cheers guys,

Adam
 

HuBBa

Forager
May 19, 2005
228
1
51
Borås, Sweden
www.hubbatheman.com
He is correct. Marijuana is taken from the flowers of the plant where the fibers for making the textiles are taken from the stems. Difference in climate will affect the length of the plant and the so called "industrial hemp" is thus driven to length when growing it, minimizing the production of THC in the flowers.

All this has inspired me to actually do my school paper in the Textile fabrics class about hemp as an alternative to cotton =)

Oh and linen is actually quite expensive to refine from plant to yarn/textile. It's very strong however which is why it's still used.

Very interesting thread and subject this =)
 

Swampy Matt

Need to contact Admin...
Sep 19, 2004
93
1
Midlands
addyb said:
Swampy,

Are you quite sure about that?

Adam,

I'm absolutely certain.
Cannabis Indica as far as I'm able to work out is not an official plant designation, Its a stoner reference to indicate a C.Sativa plant with properties similar to Cannabis Sativa found in the Middle/Far east. More correctly it would probably be C.Sativa Indica.

There is slightly more to it than merely climate to get textile Hemp or Stoner hemp, but as this is not the original purpose of this thread, and disscussing the processing of plants for drugs is against the rules of the forum. Therefore I'm not prepared to discuss this any more either on open forum or PM.
Sorry.
 

ed dickson

Member
Feb 7, 2006
35
0
38
herefordshire
Howies (howies.co.uk) has lots of (slightly biased) info on cotton. Apparently it takes seven times a given weight of cotton in chemicals to produce that amount, ie 1kg cotton uses 7kg of chemicals. Or something like that.
 

Lurch

Native
Aug 9, 2004
1,879
8
52
Cumberland
www.lakelandbushcraft.co.uk
Swampy Matt said:
disscussing the processing of plants for drugs is against the rules of the forum. Therefore I'm not prepared to discuss this any more either on open forum or PM.
Sorry.

Aren't we discussing how not to process plants for drugs? :rolleyes:
Never mind, I suppose you can't talk about one without t'other. Interesting topic though, I don't know where one would find information without being contaminated by stoner oriented talk.
 

gregorach

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Sep 15, 2005
3,723
28
50
Edinburgh
Like most plants, there's a great deal of variation between different varieties within the species. Some varieties produce better fibre, some produce more seed, etc... Variety generally has more influence than environment.
 

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