7 Sustainable Fabrics Worth Buying

With many consumers willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, more and more companies are resorting to greenwashing tactics. As a result, it can be difficult to tease apart the products that are truly sustainable from those that are not, especially in the fashion industry. Fortunately, you can check whether a fashion brand’s sustainability claims hold up by taking a closer look at the type of fabric(s) used to make an item of clothing.

Some fabrics are more sustainable and ethical than others. Among the most sustainable fabrics are recycled and organic cotton, organic hemp, organic linen, recycled wool, lyocell, and recycled polyester. Buying clothes made from these fabrics is one way you can lower the impact of your fashion consumption.

If you’re not used to checking for materials before purchasing an article of clothing, it can be intimidating to do so. But once you know which fabrics have a low environmental impact and which ones are best avoided, it becomes easier to shop more sustainably.

Photo by Artem Beliaikin

Why fabrics matter

As I covered in my complete guide to sustainable fashion, there are a number of factors that determine the eco-friendliness of an article of clothing. For example, I believe that a fashion brand can’t be truly sustainable unless it is also ethical, meaning it supports safe and healthy working conditions, and ensures that all workers involved in the process – from growing to sewing – are paid a fair living wage.

But as a consumer, it can be difficult to track down the truth behind a brand’s sustainability claims. Sure, you can look for third-party certifications such as B-Corporation, Fairtrade, Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), and OEKO-TEX to make sure a brand is following important sustainability and ethics standards. But what if a brand doesn’t have these certifications? Or maybe you just want a way to be able to tell whether the shirt you’re eyeing in a store is sustainable?

That’s where fabrics come in. Knowing what fabrics a piece of clothing is made from is one of the quickest ways to check its sustainability. You can easily find out which fabric(s) a piece of clothing is made from by looking at its tag. For example, consider two T-shirts: one T-shirt is made from 100% Cotton, while another is made from a mix of 70% Recycled Cotton and 30% Recycled Polyester. On the outside they may look and feel the same, but the tags easily reveal which one is more sustainable.

If you thought that the shirt made from recycled materials is more sustainable, you’d be right. Recycled fabrics are one way to lower the environmental impact of fashion, while simultaneously reducing our reliance on virgin materials. Still, there’s a lot of debate around which fabrics are better for the environment, and things get especially confusing when fabrics are derived from plants like bamboo, a highly sustainable resource. Are those fabrics, which are often semi-synthetic and manufactured using toxic chemicals, actually eco-friendly? Not necessarily.

Websites like Good On You and The Good Trade are helpful places to look for guidance on fabrics and fashion brands, but if you want a simple way to determine which articles of clothing have the lowest environmental impact, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with some of the market’s most sustainable fabrics.

The 7 most sustainable fabrics

The most sustainable fabric is the one that never has to be made in the first place. In other words, one of the first steps to sustainable fashion is to buy less. But as humans in modern society, there are times when we need to buy new clothes or textiles. That’s when you want to make sure you’re buying fabrics that have a low environmental impact.

So which fabrics are generally considered sustainable? As a rule of thumb, natural fibers such as hemp, linen, and cotton have a lower environmental footprint than synthetic fibers, which are derived from fossil-fuels. However, conventional farming practices destroy the soil and require a lot of chemical pesticides, so it’s best to choose organic fibers whenever possible.

Additionally, fibers made from recycled material are often a better alternative to virgin fibers. Certain animal-derived fibers can be sustainable – especially recycled wool – but some are associated with high amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention animal abuse issues.

Finally, keep in mind that this is not a complete list but rather a guide to some of the best fabrics to include in your wardrobe, and why.

Recycled cotton

Recycled cotton isn’t new, but it’s gaining popularity in the fashion industry as consumers and brands alike are looking towards more sustainable fabrics. Recycled cotton primarily comes from two sources: pre-consumer waste (i.e. cotton scraps from cutting) and post-consumer waste (i.e. your recycled cotton T-shirt).

Currently, much of the industry’s recycled cotton is used to make lower-grade materials such as rags, mops, carpets, and insulation. That’s because recycled cotton fibers are less durable than virgin ones. However, brands such as Patagonia increasingly incorporate recycled cotton in their clothing by blending it with strong fibers like virgin organic cotton or recycled polyester.

Because cotton fibers lose strength and durability when recycled, they cannot be reused infinitely. However, there are still benefits to using recycled cotton in new clothing and other textiles: recycled cotton uses less water, reduces CO2 emissions, and requires no additional pesticides/herbicides. Additionally, recycled cotton scraps are typically sorted by color, which means they don’t have to go through the dyeing process, which uses a lot of water and is toxic to both workers and the environment.

Organic cotton

When it comes to cotton, there’s a lot of debate about which kind is best; recycled, organic, regenerative organic, or conventional? Recycled cotton has its challenges, but it does have a  low environmental impact because it doesn’t require additional land and uses fewer resources than virgin cotton, whether organic or conventional.

But there’s still a lot of confusion about whether organic cotton is better than conventional cotton. Let me set the record straight: organic cotton is better than conventional cotton. However, the reason why is not so straightforward.

Organic cotton is a lower-impact alternative to conventional cotton largely because it avoids the use of synthetic herbicides and pesticides, which are harmful to soil, wildlife, and human health. However, claims that organic cotton farming uses less water than conventional cotton farming are not necessarily true. On the one hand, organic farming methods result in soil that has better water-holding capabilities, therefore reducing water use on a per acre basis. On the other hand, organic cotton farming often has lower yields, so more land is needed to grow the same amount of cotton, thereby losing most of the water-saving benefits.

Still organic cotton is a more sustainable solution than its conventional alternative. Not only are workers, wildlife, and the environment better off without the use of herbicides and pesticides, but the land used to grow organic cotton can be farmed for longer. Plus, clothes made from organic cotton are safer to wear, since they contain fewer chemicals than clothes made from conventional cotton.

Organic linen

Linen has a long history of being used for textiles. Linen comes from the flax plant, which is a resilient, drought-hardy plant with a low environmental footprint. According to a Life Cycle Analysis study, flax uses significantly less water than cotton, while producing higher yields – a win-win! Plus, flax can be grown without the use of pesticides or herbicides, though some growers may still use these anyway. Therefore, it’s best to opt for certified-organic linen, or linen that has been certified by GOTS.

While its environmental footprint is one of the lowest, there’s a reason that linen represents less than 1% of the global textile industry: it’s difficult and expensive to manufacture, and this is reflected in its higher price point. Additionally, the resulting fabric is known for being on the coarser side, which is fine for textiles such as curtains, sheets, or outerwear, but not so much for undergarments. On the plus side, linen is highly breathable, making it an excellent material for warm climates.

Organic hemp

Like linen, hemp has been around for a long time. Hemp fabric is derived from the hemp plant, which is a type of cannabis plant containing 0.3% THC or less. And like the flax plant, hemp is easy to grow, requiring little water or pesticides. The result is a fabric that has a low environmental footprint.

But again, just because hemp doesn’t need pesticides to grow, doesn’t mean that growers don’t resort to them anyway. Therefore, support responsible agriculture by purchasing organic hemp, and look for brands that are transparent about their ethics, too.

Recycled wool

Wool is known for its durability, warmth, and comfort. However, virgin wool is resource-intensive to produce, as it comes from the coats of sheep. Sheep farming is responsible for considerable amounts of greenhouse gasses (especially the potent GHG methane), so it is not considered a sustainable practice. Moreover, because sheep shearers are often paid by volume and not by hour, the process of harvesting wool often comes at the cost of the sheep’s welfare.

One alternative to virgin wool is recycled wool, which has a lower environmental impact by reusing materials already in circulation. Manteco, a company from Prato, Italy, has been recycling wool successfully for decades, but the practice dates back even farther still. Typically, wool recyclers accept pre- and post-consumer wool waste, sort it by color, shred it, and respin it into yarn. Unlike recycled cotton, which loses strength and durability, recycled wool is just as strong as virgin wool, and, in theory, it can be recycled many times.

Lyocell

So far I’ve covered the advantages of some of the best natural and recycled fibers, but one innovative, semi-synthetic fabric that is worthy of this list is lyocell. Lyocell is often referred to as TENCEL™ lyocell, which is just the branded form of lyocell by the Austrian company Lenzing AG (you may also have heard of one of their other products, TENCEL™ Modal).

Lyocell is a semi-synthetic fabric because it is derived from plants, but has undergone a chemically-intensive process. In short, cellulose (typically from wood pulp) is chemically dissolved, regenerated into fiber, then spun into usable yarn.

Although lyocell is a type of rayon fabric, it is much less harmful to the environment or human health than viscose, the most common form of rayon. That’s because the chemicals used in the lyocell process are non-toxic and managed in a closed-loop system. Additionally, the lyocell process uses less energy and less water than both conventional cotton and generic viscose, making it an eco-friendly alternative to either.

Recycled polyester

By helping support a circular economy, recycled polyester is one of the lower impact fabrics available on the market. However, recycled polyester has its limitations. Contrary to what you may have thought, recycled polyester (rPET) doesn’t come from polyester textiles; rather, it is made by recycling PET plastic, which is commonly found in plastic bottles and jugs.

As a result, the sustainability of recycled polyester is limited. It can only be used to make clothing once. After that, it can be downcycled into lower-quality products such as rags or insulation to make sure it stays in circulation as long as possible. Also, because it is made from plastic, recycled polyester releases microplastics into the environment when washed. By using sustainable laundry practices such as washing less or using a special filter, you can reduce microplastic shedding, but not stop it entirely.

That said, recycled polyester is an important aspect of sustainable waste management, and, by extension, sustainable fashion. Compared to virgin polyester derived from fossil fuels, recycled polyester uses less water and energy, and reduces our reliance on oil-based products. So next time you’re looking for stretchy, breathable sportswear, opt for recycled polyester.

Do you consider the type of fabric an item is made from before buying it? Why or why not?