Organic Clothing Materials - Part II

Organic Clothing Materials - Part II

HEMP

Hemp is environmentally friendly and requires no pesticides or fertilizers.  It also uses less water than other crops need to grow. Hemp grows quickly (70 to 110 days) producing crops once a year, unlike trees, which take many years to grow to a usable size. Hemp uses minimal nutrients from the soil and its long roots aerate the soil, leaving it rich for future crops. 

Hemp fabrics are stronger, more absorbent, more insulative, and more durable than cotton and they don’t stretch out of shape. Natural organic hemp fiber “breathes” and is biodegradable. Hemp will produce 1500 pounds of fiber per acre, whereas cotton will produce only 500 pounds per acre!

Today, hemp is grown around the world but primarily in Europe, Asia, South America and Canada. In the United States, it is illegal to grow hemp except by special permit, which is a rarity.

SOYBEAN FIBER

Soybean fiber is a sustainable textile fiber made from renewable natural resources. It is used as part of an effort to move consumers away from petrochemical textile products and turn waste into useful products.

Soybean fiber is part of “sustainable clothing”, where sustainable raw materials or waste is used to produce textile products.  Another way to look at it is like using “recycled paper,” turning waste into useful things thus greatly reduced the impact on the environment.

Aside from being eco-friendly, soybean fiber also has superior warmth retention and moisture transmission, thus keeping babies warm and dry. Soybean fiber is soft, smooth, and light. It has cashmere feel, but is smoother than cashmere. Soybean fiber has a silky luster with perfect drape and an elegant feel. It has the same moisture absorption as cotton but absorbs moisture better, making it more comfortable to wear. Soybean fiber has a stronger tensile strength than wool and is almost as good as wool in terms of warmth retention.

Caring for soybean fabric is relatively easy as it can be machine washed with little shrinkage and it can be air-dried. High temperature drying should be avoided as it may damage the protein structure.

Sources:

Why Organic?  BambinoLand.com

Images:

Hemp, Wikipedia.com and Hemp, Wikipedia.com

Soybean, Wikipedia.com (orginial source - U.S. Department of Agriculture)

, ,

This post was written by:

tliddiard - who has written 155 posts on Organic In Style.


Contact the author

Leave a Reply