
The first step in finding the most appropriate sustainable fiber alternative is to contemplate the ‘big picture’ issues and ‘small picture’ details. To achieve a sustainable environment one must take into account the significant trade-offs that are inevitable. The majority of all fiber alternatives have some sort of ‘trade-offs’, the key is to find which ‘trade-off’ will have the greatest overall impact on the environment. The solutions that the CEO proposed are all sustainable alternatives, however their are other alternatives that have even more potential. It is not a wise decision to use bamboo as a fiber alternative because “there is limited information available about the processing route for natural bamboo fibre and it appears its commercial production is at present limited to a single company in China.”(Sustainable Fashion and Textiles) Bamboo is a safer cellulosic fiber alternative, but the properties of this fiber are almost identical to the fiber viscose. The bamboo production process still release a considerable amount of air and gas emissions into the environment. A more sustainable alternative is the cellulosic fiber, lyocell. Lyocell is an “environmentally responsible fiber utilizing renewable resources as its raw materials.” (Sustainable Fashion and Textiles) Lyocell has many environmental benefits including “reduced chemical, water and energy consumption in dyeing.” (Sustainable Fashion and Textiles). A ‘trade-off’ of using lyocell is the highly energy intensive process, but the environmental benefits of using this fiber greatly outweigh this potential ‘trade-off.’
Organically grown cotton is a wonderful alternative in replacing the use of conventionally cotton. The most important benefit of producing cotton organically is it does not use pesticides, fertilizers, and water. Organic cotton production reduces the toxicity of the overall product by an astounding 93%. Organic cotton products look extremely identical to conventional cotton products, thus it’s likely to go unnoticed by consumer’s. However, it’s likely that the CEO didn’t take into account the long and costly process involved in the transitional stages from conventionally cotton to organic cotton production. Also, if the CEO intends to use organic cotton production to produce a large volume of products, then this would not be the best alternative because of the limited supply of organic fiber needed for blending. The alternative fiber, hemp, has many of the benefits that organic cotton encompasses. Unlike organic cotton, limited supply is not an issue, “hemp grows very rapidly, naturally smothering weeds and controlling pests, and so is thought to be suited to low impact systems of agriculture.” Hemp is described as a ‘double dividend’, “a reduction in the ecological footprint of production by about half, if grown to replace cotton for use in textiles, and wood for use in the pulp and paper industries.” (Sustainable Fashion and Materials) High labor costs is one of the few downsides of using hemp as an alternative fiber. A solution to reducing labor costs is assembling a research team to help find more appropriate fiber extraction alternatives. The company could also hold a competition that awarded a cash prize to the person with the best idea, in terms of enhancing the fiber extraction process. Consumer’s may be hesitant at first in consuming products made from hemp, but the company could help reduce this hesitation by increasing customer’s awareness of the many environmentally harmful effects associated with the production of conventionally grown cotton products.
The disadvantages associated with the use of recyclable PET as a fiber alternative mainly affects consumers. Products that use recyclable PET are extremely unsuitable for many of the methods used in the processing and finishing stages of production. Products made from recyclable PET cannot withstand transfer printing and dyeing fiber is extremely, thus eliminating many of the end uses for the potential products. More importantly, products using recyclable PET cannot be ironed and this would cause many consumer’s to be detracted from purchasing products made from this fiber alternative. The best alternative solution would be ending the use of polyester and polyester alternatives all together. However, “choosing fabrics not made with catalytic agents containing cobalt or manganese salts and those that avoid antimony based catalyst.” (Sustainable Fashion and Textiles) Using this solution would help control the amount of hazardous air and water emissions that are damaging to the environment. Many solutions are being developed to help provide even more sustainable alternatives. In the video presentation, “Sustainability: Innovation’s New Frontier” the guest speaker, Charline Ducas, discusses the development of renewable resources. The development of enzyme treatments and solutions, in addition to new alternatives such as rislan, radiospandex, and polyactic acid, give us hope for the future that more sustainable fiber alternatives for polyester will be developed.
Bree-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your blog this week! I have a question for you, if you were the CEO in this position of being charged with dumping toxic waste, etc would you take the extra time and pay the extra money to convert to organic cotton?
Hannah-
ReplyDeleteIf placed in the position of the CEO I would pay the extra money and time to convert to organic cotton production. Although organic cotton production has more start up expenses and takes more time I feel like these are 'trade -off's' in comparison to the overall big picture of things. In the long term I feel like it would be far cheaper making these adjustments, than potentially having to commit more time and money to deal with future lawsuit proceedings. The company's social responsibility would be enhanced by converting to organic cotton production, and hopefully this would intrigue the interest and respect of possible future consumer's.
Bree-
DeleteI completely agree with your choice made if you were the CEO and would do the same if I was ever placed in that position.
If you did switch to organic cotton and the consumers respect and interest was not earned, would you make your money back? Obviously, there would be many start up costs to change the production... Would the cost of your new organic cotton clothing go up so much that a lot of people would just choose to buy something cheaper?
ReplyDeleteThere are many risks associated with converting to organic cotton production, but I feel that many of these risks are worth taking. Converting to any kind of sustainable alternative will boasts its fair share of risks. It's a possibility that consumer's will take their business elsewhere, but if more companies do not assume these risks then we will never discover what areas require the most refinement and development.
ReplyDelete