"But beneath its malleable folds lies a nasty business.
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@climatenewsnow/115747062799509932
"But beneath its malleable folds lies a nasty business. Commercialized by the chemical giant DuPont in the mid-1900s, the process of making polyester involves superheating two petroleum-based chemicals — ethylene glycol (also used in antifreeze) and terephthalic acid (commonly used in plastic bottles) — and extruding the mixture through tiny holes to form yarn. In 2015, this process was estimated to produce as much annual carbon pollution as 180 coal-fired power plants. As the resulting polyfabrics are woven, washed, treated, and sewn into garments, they continually shed plastic microfibers."
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@climatenewsnow/115747062799509932
"But beneath its malleable folds lies a nasty business. Commercialized by the chemical giant DuPont in the mid-1900s, the process of making polyester involves superheating two petroleum-based chemicals — ethylene glycol (also used in antifreeze) and terephthalic acid (commonly used in plastic bottles) — and extruding the mixture through tiny holes to form yarn. In 2015, this process was estimated to produce as much annual carbon pollution as 180 coal-fired power plants. As the resulting polyfabrics are woven, washed, treated, and sewn into garments, they continually shed plastic microfibers."
It always comes to this: "The catch is that “you have to make a good product the first time. You make something that hopefully lasts, and then you build the infrastructure and the systems to keep it lasting.”" And it's so much easier to make it fast, cheap and meant for discarding than it is to make it well, affordable and long lasting!
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It always comes to this: "The catch is that “you have to make a good product the first time. You make something that hopefully lasts, and then you build the infrastructure and the systems to keep it lasting.”" And it's so much easier to make it fast, cheap and meant for discarding than it is to make it well, affordable and long lasting!
Also, I am never going to shut up about linen. There was just one single sentence about linen in the article, and really pretty lacking. I'd have thought they'd have mentioned that when it comes to the ecological costs of washing clothes, linen is supreme: It soaks up a lot more human sweat and skin oils and gunk before it starts to smell and/or feel uncomfortable, so you have to wash it significantly less than the equivalent cotton, viscose or polyester garment. But it's more expensive and requires different care, so people don't make it or wear it!
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Also, I am never going to shut up about linen. There was just one single sentence about linen in the article, and really pretty lacking. I'd have thought they'd have mentioned that when it comes to the ecological costs of washing clothes, linen is supreme: It soaks up a lot more human sweat and skin oils and gunk before it starts to smell and/or feel uncomfortable, so you have to wash it significantly less than the equivalent cotton, viscose or polyester garment. But it's more expensive and requires different care, so people don't make it or wear it!
Linen also grows with pretty much no fertilisers and no pesticides, and in most regions without any extra irrigation apart from rainwater. Processing it into wearable garments is still a lot of water, chemicals and energy, but... It's worlds less than cotton, and nicer to wear than deeply processed hemp.
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Linen also grows with pretty much no fertilisers and no pesticides, and in most regions without any extra irrigation apart from rainwater. Processing it into wearable garments is still a lot of water, chemicals and energy, but... It's worlds less than cotton, and nicer to wear than deeply processed hemp.
I must, however, caution you about shenanigans around linen!
The nice, good quality linen is made of the long long fine fibres of the plant, and this is one of the most pleasant and wonderful fabrics I've handled in my life.
But during processing, and if the plant was harvested improperly, there ends up being a lot of broken up, cut off or scuffed away bits of short staples of linen, tow. "It's still linen, right?" says some unscrupulous bastard who's happy to sell this trash at the same price. -
I must, however, caution you about shenanigans around linen!
The nice, good quality linen is made of the long long fine fibres of the plant, and this is one of the most pleasant and wonderful fabrics I've handled in my life.
But during processing, and if the plant was harvested improperly, there ends up being a lot of broken up, cut off or scuffed away bits of short staples of linen, tow. "It's still linen, right?" says some unscrupulous bastard who's happy to sell this trash at the same price.If you've ever bought linen that wrinkles a lot but then goes lax, or sheds just a bucket-load of lint every single time you wash it... It's likely that bastards sold off their tow to other bastards to make more linen without caring about the lower quality than it should be. And asked for the same fucking price. Horrible!
Linen sheds more lint than cotton at first, this is true, but it's not supposed to DISSOLVE. 😆 If it's cheaper than it should be and from China, it's likely a bit shit!
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If you've ever bought linen that wrinkles a lot but then goes lax, or sheds just a bucket-load of lint every single time you wash it... It's likely that bastards sold off their tow to other bastards to make more linen without caring about the lower quality than it should be. And asked for the same fucking price. Horrible!
Linen sheds more lint than cotton at first, this is true, but it's not supposed to DISSOLVE. 😆 If it's cheaper than it should be and from China, it's likely a bit shit!
@sinituulia I have discovered that the linen I found only have short staple fibers. A friend said the cut the fibres to put them on the coton spinning machine. I'm steal searching for long fibers linen... -
@sinituulia I have discovered that the linen I found only have short staple fibers. A friend said the cut the fibres to put them on the coton spinning machine. I'm steal searching for long fibers linen...
@LCdPL Yeah, it does make sense in a way, there's a lot more cotton processing machinery than there is linen... You don't even need to cut the fibres necessarily, because there ends up being so much of the shorter ones anyway. But the end result is just not very good either way.
If you can find linen made in Belgium, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, those are old old linen producing countries that still make it properly! If you don't mind paying a lot, Sartor Bohemia also sells Czech linen, I've bought it before and it's lovely... Though it's much cheaper from Estonia to me. 😄
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@LCdPL Yeah, it does make sense in a way, there's a lot more cotton processing machinery than there is linen... You don't even need to cut the fibres necessarily, because there ends up being so much of the shorter ones anyway. But the end result is just not very good either way.
If you can find linen made in Belgium, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, those are old old linen producing countries that still make it properly! If you don't mind paying a lot, Sartor Bohemia also sells Czech linen, I've bought it before and it's lovely... Though it's much cheaper from Estonia to me. 😄
@sinituulia @LCdPL lol, I've bought some very nice linen from Italy for a shirt¹ as a treat once, and to me Sartor's linen is the *cheap* one :D
they are both lovely in different ways, however
¹ which ended up being two shirts, because there happened to be a end-of-roll that was too short for the 1700 shirt I wanted to make but just enough for a shirtwaist, and the fabric seller knows me too well :D
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@sinituulia @LCdPL lol, I've bought some very nice linen from Italy for a shirt¹ as a treat once, and to me Sartor's linen is the *cheap* one :D
they are both lovely in different ways, however
¹ which ended up being two shirts, because there happened to be a end-of-roll that was too short for the 1700 shirt I wanted to make but just enough for a shirtwaist, and the fabric seller knows me too well :D
@valhalla The regular Sartor linen is cheap for linen, but it also doesn't tell where it's from and usually if it's Oeko-Tex... And they raised the per metre price of the Bohemian linen by 4-9€ depending on fabric type, which is kind of a hike. 😄 Like, sure. That's okay to pay for European linen, but it's also up to three times more expensive than cotton!
I might be spoiled by being able to find nice European linen for much less, though.
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@valhalla The regular Sartor linen is cheap for linen, but it also doesn't tell where it's from and usually if it's Oeko-Tex... And they raised the per metre price of the Bohemian linen by 4-9€ depending on fabric type, which is kind of a hike. 😄 Like, sure. That's okay to pay for European linen, but it's also up to three times more expensive than cotton!
I might be spoiled by being able to find nice European linen for much less, though.
@sinituulia uops, the Bohemian linen is more expensive than I remembered, indeed
but maybe that's also because up to now I've only bought it during one of their big sales, that helps :D
anyway, even at full price it's still cheaper than the Italian linen from my local shop :D