Dressing Green
Greentips: June 2000
So you want to dress green. That's a tough one. Natural clothing doesn't come in a wide range of styles and rarely sells at local stores. Moreover, getting the real thing requires vigilance. An eco label doesn't mean clothes are completely chemical-free. Nor may you want to forgo every chemical. But keep this in mind: buying even partially green clothes lessens your environmental impact, reduces your own contact with chemicals and helps build the market by demonstrating demand.
Dyes
Conventional, petrochemical dyes pollute waterways, so undyed clothes are unquestionably better. If you can't live with a totally off-white wardrobe, look into botanically-dyed clothes. The downside is that colors are less intense and tend to fade and bleed with washing. "Color-grown cotton" is another option. The plants grow in shades ranging from cream and brown to rust and green. Colors deepen when laundered.
Other Chemical Treatments
Chemicals are used to make fabrics wrinkle-free, moth-repellant, stain-resistant and soft—i.e., cheaper and easier to care for. They're also used to make materials flame-retardant. Consider carefully before abandoning this safety feature, especially with children's sleepwear.
Fabrics
Some fabrics are just better avoided. Petroleum-based synthetics cause hazardous waste and don't biodegrade. Rayon and acetate, though "natural," generate toxins in production. Silk is relatively benign until dyed, but not always practical. There are also recycled plastic fibers (think fleece), used primarily for outdoor wear. That leaves:
Cotton - the world's most popular fabric. Avoid the conventionally grown kind—it's one of the most chemically treated crops there is—in favor of certified organic cotton.
Linen - a fabric derived from flax, which is easily grown organically. As it uses less water and produces less pollutants in the dying process than cotton, it can be a lower-impact choice even when conventionally dyed.
Hemp - a versatile fabric similar to linen. The plant is a hardy weed, but is often grown with chemicals anyway. Its cultivation is illegal in the United States (due to guilt by association with marijuana), so hemp must be imported, often from countries with laxer environmental standards than our own.
Wool - an amazing fabric that is naturally flame-retardent and soil-resistant. Its environmental impact depends on how sustainably the sheep are farmed.
What does all this come down to?
You can make a difference by purchasing clothes made with organically grown fabrics that are undyed or naturally dyed. To do even more, buy fewer new clothes and hand down discards.
