How green is your green cloth

Green is a buzz word today. Green means eco-friendly, natural. Individuals as well as companies have been advertising their greenness like anything.

Understanding green is not as easy as it seems. It requires technical knowledge about environment and eco-friendliness.

Which is more eco-friendly? Cotton cloth or Polyester cloth.

Many will say cotton. Polyester means chemicals, synthetic chemicals and formulations. Cotton is natural, so more nature friendly.

No. Not correct. Polyester is more eco-friendly. To understand this we have to understand the entire life cycle of both cotton and polyester and the chemicals used in production/cultivation and so on. Cotton is no doubt natural. But at the same time cotton cloth has more adverse effect on environment than polyester cloth. Two convincing reasons:

• Use of chemicals/pesticides in cotton cultivation. The toxic pesticides affect many inhabitants of the ecosystem.
• Cotton cloth requires frequent ironing than polyester cloth. Ironing means heat generation and excessive energy consumption.

Researchers with analysis of the end-to-end life of cotton and polyester clothes and effect on environment of various chemical and physical processing have concluded that on an overall basis cotton is less eco-friendly than polyester.

Similarly if you pay a premium for organic cotton, you need to understand many organically grown cotton are latter subjected to toxic chemicals. It is not about only cotton cultivation. You need to ensure that the organically grown cotton has been processed as per organic processing standards. So think twice before paying premium if you are paying only for organically cultivated cotton.

Many times natural dyes are also not that natural. Many natural dyes use metal complex as binding agents. And these metal complexes are not eco-friendly.

The so called green cloth may not be green. If you are paying premium for greenness ensure that you have evaluated all aspects of greenness. And people with degrees in textile chemistry may also fail to evaluate this.

If you have already paid premium for your green cloth, without investigating further assume that the cloth is green and enjoy the feeling of happiness for contributing to environment.