Welcome to our textile series! Throughout eight steps, we’ll provide you with comprehensive knowledge about textiles, starting from the source of raw materials and leading up to the processes involved in clothing recycling. Additionally, we’ll delve into the various challenges the textile industry encounters at each stage. You’ll gain insight each week and follow the journey from fiber production to recycling.
With more knowledge, you will understand how textiles affect our nature. With facts, you will build your knowledge bank, and over time, you will have built up your common sense to make your reasoning and form your values.
Part 1.
From raw material to textile material
Clothes are made from many different textile materials such as cotton, linen, wool, viscose, and polyester and often consist of mixtures of two or more textile fibres. Textile fibres are long, narrow and flexible in shape and are the basic fabric and clothing material. We classify textile materials according to whether they are artificial or natural and whether the raw material for the fibers comes from plants, animals, or oil.
1. NATURAL FIBERS
Natural fibres are fibres from nature. Cotton, flax, and silk have been used by humans for thousands of years to spin threads and make clothes. Natural fibers can be from plants, plant fibres like cotton and flax, or animal fibres like wool and silk. The appearance and properties of natural fibres vary greatly depending on their origin. For example, a cotton fibre can range from just over one to six centimetres. A silk fibre, on the other hand, is several 100 metres long and is known as filament.
Problems, natural fibres – plant fibres
We divide natural fibres into plant and animal fibers. Cotton is a plant fibre and one of the highest environmental impact fibres. Producing one kilogram of conventionally grown cotton from the cotton plant requires between 7,000 and 29,000 liters of water and large quantities of insecticidal and weed-killing chemicals. One kilo of cotton is enough for 5 to 6 t-shirts. This water-intensive plant has depleted lakes, rivers, and ecosystems in the regions where it is grown. The cotton plant requires hot weather, limiting the number of cultivable sites to already water-poor areas. Another problem is that cotton is increasingly grown yearly as a monoculture. This practice depletes the soil’s balance of minerals and nutrients and reduces biodiversity.
Flax and hemp are two other plant fibres that are less dependent on irrigation and use fewer chemicals, as hemp and flax grows in colder, rainier climates and are less exposed and vulnerable to insect pests.
Problems, natural fibres – animal fibres
Raising animals for fibre use has similar problems to agriculture. Breeders sometimes use antibiotics to speed up growth and keep diseases at bay. Animals are sometimes bathed in bactericidal, antiseptic solutions to protect them from wound infections. Wool, being oily, is often dirty, may contain parasites, and must be washed clean before spinning. Washing uses hot water, detergents, insecticides, solvents, and sometimes ammonia. Good wastewater treatment or closed washing systems are required to ensure that no chemicals or wool grease end up in nature. Due to its natural oiliness, wool frequently accumulates dirt, potentially harboring parasites and necessitating a thorough cleaning before the spinning process can begin.
Merino sheep are a popular breed in the clothing industry for their wool. However, breeders have problems with flies laying eggs in skin folds on the sheep, especially on the back where there is dirt and feces. They scalp away the skin fold to avoid this problem, a method known as mulesing. They usually do this procedure when the lambs are between 4 and 12 weeks old, and it is considered animal cruelty. The mulesing practice has decreased after being highlighted since the early 2000s but still occurs.
2. ARTIFICIAL FIBRES
Fibres produced artificially by chemical processes are called artificial fibres. The raw material for artificial fibres can come from the forest and other cellulose-based raw materials and is called regenerated fibre. If it originates from oil, it is called synthetic fibre. We prepare a spinning process from the raw material to produce synthetic fibres and form them into long fibre threads called filaments. Then, we can use the filaments as they are or cut them into shorter lengths and crimp them to resemble natural fibres.
2.1 Regenerated Fibre
In the late 19th century, we developed a method to create synthetic textiles from trees by extracting cellulose through a chemical process called “regenerate,” resulting in viscose. By the late 1990s, technology evolved with different solvents and closed systems, enabling chemical reuse and the birth of lyocell. We can source cellulose from bamboo, spruce, eucalyptus, and cotton.
Problem – Regenerated Fibre
Producing regenerated fibre requires less water and chemicals than conventionally grown cotton. However, it is an energy-intensive process. The difference between the textile materials viscose and lyocell is mainly the technology used to produce the regenerate. Lyocell recycles the chemicals using closed systems.
The regenerated fibre is often weaker and can shorten the lifespan of clothing.
2.2 Synthetic fibre
Synthetic fibres typically originate from non-renewable fossil fuels, with a chemical spinning solution known as “granules.” Common synthetic textile materials include polyester, polyamide, and acrylic.
The development of oil-based textile materials gained traction in the early 20th century. This shift occurred primarily due to cotton’s high cost and uncertain availability during wartime, necessitating a more cost-effective and reliable alternative. In recent times, the production of synthetic materials has surged.
These robust and colorfast synthetic fibres are frequently blended with other materials.
Problem – synthetic fiber
We primarily use fossil fuels derived from non-renewable sources to produce synthetic fibers. Both the extraction of the crude oil and the subsequent processes are energy-intensive. The crude oil is purified, separated, and transformed, ultimately requiring additives to become synthetic fibers (plastic fibers). Unlike natural fibers, no water is required in fiber production.
Synthetic fibres can contribute to microplastics in nature. The washing process releases tiny fibres from textiles. The fibres that wastewater treatment plants do not capture stay in the environment. As synthetic fibres are plastics, they are difficult to degrade and can take hundreds of years to decompose; a natural or regenerated fibre decomposes in a few years.
Next Post – Part 2, will be about Thread Manufacturing
If you want to read more and follow the whole process, please check out the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation, where you can learn more about our work: Naturskyddsforeningen.se – Fact Sheet, The Garment School 
