What is Tencel?
Tencel® is the brand name for a biodegradable fabric made from wood pulp cellulose.
Tencel is created from the lyocell fiber, and is becoming increasingly popular as an eco-friendly alternative to fabrics such as polyester, nylon, and even cotton. In practice, many fabrics combine various fibers so it’s common to see Tencil combined with linen, rayon, lycra, micro denier polyester or cotton. So, some of these blends will result in a less-eco-friendly fabric.
Many people who buy Tencel products rave about it’s luxurious feel so this can only be a good thing for Tencel and other lyocell fabrics.
How Eco-Friendly is Tencel?
Manufacturing
Tencel / lyocell has quite an eco-friendly manufacturing process, with one or two possible exceptions.
The fiber is produced via process which uses a non-toxic solvent that is 99 percent recoverable and recyclable. Also, no toxic chemical products are produced during the process, which means there are no toxic fumes released into the atmosphere. Bleach is not required when manufacturing Tencil, which sets it apart from other fabrics such as cotton. So far, so good.
The biggest disadvantage of Tencil and other lyocell fabrics is that they don’t dye very easily. This may lead the manufacturer to use chemical processes, enzyme baths, or other treatments that aren’t eco-friendly.
Another disadvantage of Tencil / lyocell is that the fabrics have a tendency to fibrillate when wet. This may lead a manufacturer to treat it so that it doesn’t fibrillate. This treatment may not be so eco-friendly. If a manufacturer doesn’t treat the fabric, it will often be labeled as “dry clean only”.
Biodegradability / Recyclability
Tencil / lyocell is 100% biodegradable, and will decompose within 8 days under the right conditions. Products made from tencil and other lyocell fabrics can also be recycled.
Where can I buy Tencel Products?
Tencel products are becoming popular so you might find some in your local clothing store. You can also purchase Tencel products online. Here are some examples:
- Here are some tencel products at Amazon.com
- You can find some Tencel clothes at The Öko Box
- You can also find Tencel clothes ZonaClothes (order by mail or phone)
Tags: biodegradable, eco-friendly clothes, fabric, fiber, lyocell, Sustainability, tencel
May 29th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
[...] Long indigo skirt (Denim or Tencel - my preferred fabric) [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Nice website!!
August 24th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
Informative. I’ll reccommend my friends to visit you. Do you want to write more about it?
March 11th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
Tencel sounds great in so many ways but have you ever seen the hundreds of miles of rain forest that have been bulldozed to plant eucalyptus trees in Brazil (and god knows where else)? I have and it’s horrible! Did you know few animals can live in a forest of eucalyptus trees all planted in perfectly straight rows. Koala bears- that’s one. It isn’t a tree indigenous to Brazil so nothing likes it. So sure it’s a big improvement over petroleum based polyester but lets not ignore the rest of the story.
January 2nd, 2010 at 10:16 am
wow what a interesting post , its really helpful for us
and i saw this post on yahoo ill pop back to your site later tomorrow
January 24th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Thanks, Cat! That is the information I was seeking when researching tencel and all its glory. From what I have gathered it is a leading cause of deforestation in SE-Asia. I am will continue to research more.
May 1st, 2010 at 12:04 pm
I have been observing many websites for a long time on all the search engines. I havent come across a blog so clean. I will be bookmarking this site for sure and popping back again later.
January 17th, 2011 at 2:59 am
This is my second visit to this blog. Resources like the one you mentioned here will be very useful to me! Thanks and have a good day.
January 21st, 2011 at 10:47 am
Thank you so much for this informative post! My question is, I just bought some baby wipes from Costco that are made with this product. What does this mean? Are they better than the cotton wipes or not so much?
February 24th, 2011 at 3:53 am
Kindly Send the detail to mt Email Id, Supplier of Lyocell Fiber from where i buy Lyocell Fiber Please Gave the complete Companies Details except Leinzing .. ???
May 11th, 2011 at 3:05 pm
If you could let me know also where I could purchase this product in the UK. I would really-appreciate it. Thanks.
ps I love the image at the top of the page.