World 5 Most Sustainable Textile Fibers

What is Sustainability?

Sustainability in Textiles’ ultimate goal is to meet the demands of the present and future without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their essential needs. The concept of sustainability depends on the three pillars. These are: social, economic, and environmental. And also known informally as profits, planet, and people.

What is sustainability in textile?

Sustainability in textiles is the most important term in the current textile industry. It indicates eco-friendly, producing cheap, as well as biodegradable textile and apparel with sustainable textile fiber and fabric.

Sustainability in textile main goals to accomplish the most important issue to reduce the textile waste issue in the current textile industry.

Textile Sustainability 5 Main Goals are:

  1. To make natural resources in a productive way.
  2. Reduce the total textile production cost as well as waste generation.
  3. Focused on Textile Sustainable Developments. It focuses on environmental, economic, as well as in cultural development.
  4. Encourage Advanced Textile technological progress in the Productive apparel production process.
  5. Best Utilizing the consumption of natural resources. Such as water, plants, soils, and so on.
Sustainable Textile Fibers
Figure: Textile sustainability main goals

Objectives of Sustainable Textile Fibers:

  • Low Water needs.
  • Low Energy Need.
  • Could be Made of Waste and Recyclable.
  • From Renewable Resource.
  • Chemical Control.
  • No GMO.
  • No Soil Erosion.
  • Biodegradable and so on.

Most sustainable textile fibers:

1. Jute:

Eco-friendly Poly Bag_ Sonali
Figure: Eco-friendly Poly Bag Sonali Bag

Jute is a versatile fiber. It’s 100% bio-degradable, recyclable, and thus environmentally friendly. A hectare of jute plants consumes 15-20 tonnes of CO2and releases 10-12 tonnes of O2. It has high tensile strength, and low extensibility, which ensures better breathability. Jute-made textile products are massively used in packaging material.

Diversified byproducts from jute include its use in apparel, cosmetics, medicine, paints, and other products. Jute sticks are used as fuelling and fencing materials all over the world. Today jute invented Sonali bag, an alternative to polythene bags, making jute fiber the world’s most sustainable textile fiber. One day jute will be the alternative to polyethylene and polyester-made products.

2. Recycled Polyester Fiber

Recycled Polyester Yarn Process
Figure: rPET – Recycled Polyester making Process

Nearly half of the world’s apparel product is made from polyester. But polyester is not a sustainable and eco-friendly product. To minimize the problem mass used polyester, rpolymer is the best alternative. Rpolyster refers to recycled polyester. It is popular as rPET.

rPET is not only more sustainable. But also comparatively eco-friendly with polyester. rPET is recycled by melting down existing plastic, then re-spinning it into new polyester fiber. Basically, rPET is made from plastic objects thrown away by consumers. The Textile exchange promised 20% of all polyester will be recycled into rPET by 2030.

3. Recycled Cotton

Recycled Cotton made T-shirt
Figure: Recycled Cotton made T-shirt

Cotton is the most common fibre and fabric used in the world. But growing cotton can be problematic for human beings. Because growing and cotton processing is not sustainable at all due to the higher consumption of water as well as energy.

Conventional cotton fiber is more water thirstiest than other fibers. As well as chemical-intensive plants to grow. It requires a lot of pesticides and, as a result, has a negative impact on the planet, and the people who grow it.

Recycled Cotton
Recycled Cotton

Recycled cotton, a more sustainable alternative to conventional cotton, has been booming in the last few years. Recycled cotton aims to minimize the environmental impact of cotton production and processing by recycling the cotton.

Besides recycled cotton, using linen fabric is more sustainable than using regular cotton fiber. Because of the unique properties of linen, it lasts for so much longer time than most other fabrics.

4. PAFL

Pineapple Leaf Fiber (PALF)
Fig: Fiber extracted from Pineapple

The PALF is extracted from the leaves of the pineapple plant. PALF is also known as pina-fiber. The pina fiber is mostly sourced from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, India, and so on. PALF-blended yarns are potentially used in various textile applications, especially in the automobile industry.

Pineapple leaf fiber composites are more significant materials for the replacement of non-renewable synthetic fibers in the automobile industry. Pineapple leaf fiber bolstered composites have several attractive features and benefits, such as eco-friendly, biodegradability, low cost, tenuity, easy mold-ability, and so on.

You may like also: Bamboo Fabric Manufacturing Process

5. Banana Fiber

Banana fiber
Figure: Banana fiber

Banana fiber, a lignocellulosic bast fiber, is obtained from the pseudo-stem of the banana plant. Banana fiber has relatively good mechanical properties. Fiber cells dead at maturity and serve as support tissue, it’s often used in medical textiles.

Banana fibers possess several advantages over synthetic fibers such as low density, appropriate stiffness, and mechanical properties, and also high disposal ability and renewability. Banana fibers are widely used for various purposes such as in medical textile, paper as well as handicraft industries.

Sustainable fibers and Textiles Properties:

  • Low water needs during production.
  • Low energy need.
  • Recyclable.
  • Uses renewable sources.
  • Low Chemical Application.
  • Eco friendly.
  • Bio-degradable.
  • Easy to produce.
  • Cheap.
  • Affordable.
  • Durable.
  • Low energy Consumption during Production.
  • High tensile properties.
  • Produce Breathable products.
  • Easy to disposable and renewability and so on.

Final Sustainable Textile Fibers

Sonali Bag
Figure: Mubarak Ahmad khan and His Invented Sonali Bag

The concept of sustainable development in textile fiber should have many interpretations. However, as fiber is the core of textiles which sustainable use and development will satisfy the present needs without compromising the environmental standards, to ensure that the future generation may have sustainable living. As long as unsustainable methods are used in the textile industry, the consequences of global warming are going to be more severe. Therefore, it is imperative to develop and maintain a sustainable textile practice that will result in a sustainable environment and living.
Reference:
Md Mahedi Hasan Owner:textiledetails.com
Md Mahedi Hasan

About the Editor

This is Mahedi Hasan, a Textile Engineer, as well as a Top Rated content writer at Upwork, Level 02 Seller at Fiverr, and Level 02 Publisher at Ezoic. Having a B.Sc. in Textile Engineering from Textile Engineering College, Noakhali (TECN). Department is Apparel Engineering. Highly Experienced fashion content writer since 2019.

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