Natural Environment Blog

In today’s ever-increasing environmentally conscience world, we are seeing some really innovative materials emerging as eco friendly alternatives. Another example of this is Ingeo.

Ingeo^™ (a trademark of Natureworks LLC) is a man-made fiber made out of corn. Natureworks claim that Ingeo is the world’s first man-made fiber derived from 100% annually renewable resources. Natureworks describe Ingeo as follows:

Ingeo fiber combines the qualities of natural and synthetic fibers in a new way. Strength and resilience are balanced with comfort, softness and drape in textiles. In addition, Ingeo fiber has good moisture management characteristics. This means that Ingeo fiber is ideally suited to fabrics from fashion to furnishings.

Ingeo fabric:

• Is color fast (i.e. does not fade).
• Is wrinkle free (doesn’t need ironing).
• Is resilient - it doesn’t shrink.
• Doesn’t absorb odors.
• Has excellent soil release and stain resistance.
• Has excellent performance when compared to other fibers.
• Is hypoallergenic. Ingeo has never caused an allergic reaction in independent testing.
• Has excellent U.V. resistance (better than polyester).
• Will not retain moisture. It can be spun dry in the washer, and requires little or no drying.
• Is more breathable than polyester

If you’re interested, here’s a report from the Hohenstein Institute comparing Ingeo fabric to cotton and polyester as a fabric for sporting applications. (Hint: Ingeo came out on top).

Organic linen refers to linen that is made from plant fibers as opposed to synthetic means. But more importantly, the plants have been grown without the use of toxic pesticides and fertilizers.

The term “linen” is often used in a generic sense to describe a certain textiles such as bedding, table cloths, towels, etc. This is quite a general use of the term and it doesn’t refer to what the term “linen” was originally used for. Linen originally referred to yarn and fabric made from flax fibers (from the flax plant).

These days linen could be made from flax fibers, cotton, hemp, or it could be synthetic. Therefore, the term linen is now a little ambiguous.

If you are a purist, you might say that true linen is made from flax fibers.

Where Can I get Organic Linen?

Nowadays, there are plenty of products on the market made of “organic linen” or “eco-friendly linen”. While some of these products may be made from flax fibers, many of them are made from other fibers.

• Crespi1797, a company from the 18th century, continue to produce pure linen made from flax
• MikkaWork, a Chinese company, make organic linen
• Australian company, ecoLinen uses organic cotton in their eco-friendly linen products. ecoLinen are the first linen company in Australia to be certified organic by SKAL International
• Rawganique produce organic clothes, towels, and bedding. They use use flax linen as well as hemp and organic cotton in their products

Sometimes it seems that just about everything we buy these days ends up being bad for the environment. I mean, even the clothes we’ve all been buying and wearing for so many years have turned out to be bad for the environment…

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that wearing clothes is bad for the environment! The problem lies in the fabrics that are being used to make our modern day clothes. These fabrics tend to be far from eco-friendly. Here are some examples:

• Cotton: The production of (non-organic) cotton destroys farmland and pollutes waterways. The production of a simple T-shirt requires two pounds of pesticide!
• Dyes: Most common dyes that are used in fabrics contain heavy metals that can be harmful to animals, the natural environment, and ourselves.
• Synthetic polyesters and nylons: These are made from petrochemicals via a process of refining crude oil, which creates horrible pollution.
• Silk: Commercial silk is made by boiling the silkworms’ cocoons, then unwinding the single silk strand onto reels. This results in the silkworms being boiled to death in their cocoons.

What’s more, many fabrics cause further environmental problems when they’re dumped in landfill. Fabrics can typically take hundreds of years (or more) to break down in landfill.

But there is hope. Many major clothing companies are recognizing the environmental problems caused by traditional fabrics, and they’re starting to do something about it. These companies are now producing clothes that are made from eco-friendly fabrics.

Unfortunately, eco-friendly clothes still tend to be the exception rather than the norm. That’s why it’s so important for us, as consumers, to start searching for clothes made from environmentally friendly fabrics. The more of us that do this, the more commercially viable it will be for companies to use eco-friendly fabrics in their clothing lines. Here’s an example of one major clothing company doing just that.