I’ve avoided synthetic fabrics for years. People used to think I was just being a woowoo anti-science luddite hippy (this was back before microplastics were a well-known phenomenon). But the fact is I just didn’t like the texture of synthetics.
Here are some examples of natural fiber, all of which are lovely:
Linen - made from flax; lightweight, airy, dries quickly. Great for summer.
Bamboo - made from bamboo. Feels like a dream. Softer than cotton, lighter than linen, smooth as silk. Sustainable. Not even crazy expensive.
Micromodal - made from beech trees. Similar to bamboo, but even softer.
Rayon - made from cellulose. Often used in blends to impart softness and elasticity. Many different kinds. Bamboo and micromodal might technically be kinds of rayon. Also known as viscose.
Non-vegan:
Sheep’s wool - Many varieties. Soft, warm, comfortable even when wet. Great for winter (and hiking socks!). Can be felted due to the properties of the fiber. Comes in a range of qualities, but low quality wool can be itchy.
Alpaca - Like wool, but softer, sturdier, and warmer. More expensive than wool.
Kashmere - made from a species of goat fiber. Very very soft. Also expensive.
Mohair - Different kind of goat wool. Haven’t tried this one personally so I can’t describe it.
Angora - Made from rabbit wool! Also haven’t tried this one, but supposedly it’s very soft.
Yak - Suuuper warm. Durable. Not as expensive as you might think.
Silk - Soft, smooth, shiny. Also non-conductive and low-friction! Tends to be expensive, though.
And of course, cotton is versatile and has a wide range of qualities (depends on growing region, thread count, and processing methods. Pima and Egyptian cotton are supposed to be the highest quality, but are also more expensive. Organic cotton is best for the environment).
Here are just some examples of fabrics you can make with cotton:
Jersey knit
Terry cloth
Flannel
Denim
Satin
Muslin
Be sure to check the tags though: many “cotton blends” contain polyester, and often they label something “flannel” when it’s just polyester with a plaid print (real flannel is a type of fabric, not the pattern on the cloth. If you can’t see the individual threads that make up the pattern, it’s not real flannel, just a print).
Final note: most fibers can be either knit or woven, with textures depending accordingly. There are sooo many different kinds of wovens, each with its own unique pattern. Could write a whole textbook just on different kinds of weave.
Although, I find it difficult to find real hemp products. So many things that used to be hemp are now made of acrylic (drug rugs, mexican-style blankets, etc.)
I think I have a pair of flip flops lined with hemp, and you’re right, it is a lot like linen!
Hey, not to be that guy, but viscose and “bamboo” etc. are not natural and environmentally friendly fabrics. They are from natural fibers but heavily chemically processed. I wear them too in boxers because they are very durable and nice to wear. But just wanted to inform you!
The viscose rayon made from bamboo requires pretty nasty solvents, and that’s the stuff used to make soft stuff like underpants. It can also be made into a stiffer thread more like linen without a chemical process.
Organic cotton is actually way softer than regular cotton. I forget the explanation that I read, but I think it has something to do with using a better variety.
Bamboo and micromodal make good underwear. I haven’t tried them in the summer yet so I don’t know how they hold up in heat and humidity.
Linen can be good for underwear. It’s very breathable, but sometimes it takes a few washes before it feels soft. Also, it doesn’t have any natural elasticity, so it needs an elastic waistband to stay up. Sometimes it has a drawstring, but I prefer the waistband personally. It’s also loose and flowy, so if you wear tight clothes and don’t want it bunching underneath, linen isn’t a good choice for underwear. If you wear loose, flowy clothes anyway, linen is a great choice.
If you’re willing to put out the expense, silk undies sound kinda awesome. Never tried that myself though so I’m not sure how breathable it is.
Personally, I love linen in general for hot weather. You can wear long sleeves to keep the sun off, and its so airy that you don’t even feel hot under your clothes. Especially if it’s a light color. It also dries quickly, so it’s not like cotton where once you sweat you’ll be wet all day. Spend thirty minutes in the shade on a breezy day, and your linen clothes will already be dry
Can we though? Like, sure, as a personal choice, I could prioritize clothes made from non-plastics (and I do, though not religiously), but is there enough cotton and such available on the planet to meet every individual’s clothing needs? Because if we want to talk about it at a “reducing microplastics being generated” level, that’s what’s required in the end.
Plus supply and demand means that prices follow demand, so everyone doing this will drive up organic based clothing prices and drive down plastic based clothing prices.
Not saying we shouldn’t try to adjust our individual patterns, just that it gets more complicated as it scales up.
Clothes particles go right into the water, not air so much
I think this should be a big deal because we can probably do something about it. microplastics from clothing ought to be controllable by pollution regulations on manufacturers and filters on clothes washers
Or buying more clothes with natural fabrics
I’ve been considering the filter idea because it’s something in my control but it’s unclear if currently available Ones are effective
Edit: checked my water treatment since it’s supposed to be among the most advanced, and nope. It does not measure or treat PFAS or microplastics, and it sells treated sewage as fertilizer.
I see those contaminants are mostly blamed on leachate from landfills but that just narrows to the source where we should be doing something
Cotton, wool, linen, and leather as well as re-learning to mend and alter clothes instead of everything being fast and disposable. I feel like I’m in crazytown every time I go shopping, there’s so much god damn plastic everywhere.
No, the choice between safely biodegradable tires vs petro tires is a separate discussion from better pubic transit to reduce the need for those tires.
A few things I’m going to point out though.
It’s not the run off into streams and into drinking water that’s the likely point of intake. It’s the air we breath, epically in cities or along major highways where people are intaking the plastic.
Don’t assume that just because something is natural means that it is completely harmless. Plenty of natural compounds are toxic.
The family of compounds that we need to be concerned about the most is PFAS. It is a synthetic, but it’s because it’s a forever chemical and doesn’t metabolize out of the body.
The first and easiest step would to remove the PFAS and create safe alternatives. It’s a weird Catch 22. It needs to be durable and long lasting so it doesn’t blow out on the highway, but it also needs to be weak and biodegradable so organic systems can break it down. EVs, even the EV busses, need even more durable tires as the torque is higher.
Even if you got wide spread train adoption, people still need to get to those trains and bikes still have rubber tires. Busses use less rubber compared to cars per person, but it’s still not zero.
Connecting mircoplastic from runoff seems like a wasted effort. What do you do with it afterwards? Burn it? Try and recycle it? Plastic is hard to recycle. Better to keep the most harmful plastics from being created in the first place.
I don’t see how this matters. It’s not whether that materials exist, but how much wear away into microplastics. Aside from the occasional kid screwing around, bicycles probably are not.
Connecting microplastic from runoff seems like a wasted effort
For sure it’s better that it not be created, however it is. Even if we were able to stop using it, there are mountains of goods already using it and goods already disposed of, leaching pollution into our air, our water, our food, our environment. Even if we were able to find away for tires to stop emitting microplastics, we have billions of tires that will continue to do so.
Mandating that everyone in the public can no longer buy the huge variety of clothing styles that can only be achieved with synthetics would cause a giant uproar of opposition and would be almost impossible to get passed into law.
Plus mandate a filter on clothes washers. I’m sure there would be an entire subculture of reactionaries dedicated to removing them but most people wouldn’t
Demand changes what is available. My local men’s fashion place now sells Hawaiian shirts made of natural fibres. Cotton underwear has always been available
Now I can easily get my brightly coloured clothes in reasonable fibres I’ll have nothing that loses micro plastics on me today
Though I may ride my bike and bike tyres have the same problems as car tyres though they wear much less
Am I being naive when I believe that clothing is 100% cotton/linen because that’s what it says on the tag and there’s some tricksy shit like plastic thread not counting or are those also hard to find where you are?
Well, sorta - in some markets labels can also just be fake (or even in regulated markets I’m sure there can be “mistakes”), but in a lot of them the tags are just describing one (main) fabric.
So a plain shirt made from 100% cotton can be stitched together with a plastic thread. Or have elastic collar (ie plastic).
(Not to mention that you basically can’t get any data on die method used. Or exact fabric characteristics, like thread length. Or weave type. Etc.)
I’m most comfortable if the tag lists like 5 separate 100% items (eg ingredients of the main fabric, of the pocket liners, of buttons, of elastic bits, etc).
Everything is designed to fatigue you out & monetise your actions the most.
But with a lot of clothing you just can’t get non-plastic bits at all - like winter clothes, footwear, etc.
Even more depressive most/all such items have some pfas outer layer (like a teflon or teflon-like coating so it’s more hydrophobic/oleophobic & the water & dirt slides off). But we all breathe it in & it just stays there.
… and then there are ppl who worship clothes made from 100% artificial materials bcs they are “high tech” & have “good performance”.
…and ~35% come from the clothes we wear. No clothes, no cars, sign me up.
I mean we could just go to cotton or other organic materials for clothing
Yeah but where’s the fun in that?
I’ve avoided synthetic fabrics for years. People used to think I was just being a woowoo anti-science luddite hippy (this was back before microplastics were a well-known phenomenon). But the fact is I just didn’t like the texture of synthetics.
Here are some examples of natural fiber, all of which are lovely:
Non-vegan:
And of course, cotton is versatile and has a wide range of qualities (depends on growing region, thread count, and processing methods. Pima and Egyptian cotton are supposed to be the highest quality, but are also more expensive. Organic cotton is best for the environment).
Here are just some examples of fabrics you can make with cotton:
Be sure to check the tags though: many “cotton blends” contain polyester, and often they label something “flannel” when it’s just polyester with a plaid print (real flannel is a type of fabric, not the pattern on the cloth. If you can’t see the individual threads that make up the pattern, it’s not real flannel, just a print).
Final note: most fibers can be either knit or woven, with textures depending accordingly. There are sooo many different kinds of wovens, each with its own unique pattern. Could write a whole textbook just on different kinds of weave.
You missed hemp. I’ve only the one shirt and haven’t worn it much yet but it seems similar to linen. I’ll find out as it gets warmer.
Good point! I did forget that one.
Although, I find it difficult to find real hemp products. So many things that used to be hemp are now made of acrylic (drug rugs, mexican-style blankets, etc.)
I think I have a pair of flip flops lined with hemp, and you’re right, it is a lot like linen!
Rayon is still toxic to the environment to some degree
Hey, not to be that guy, but viscose and “bamboo” etc. are not natural and environmentally friendly fabrics. They are from natural fibers but heavily chemically processed. I wear them too in boxers because they are very durable and nice to wear. But just wanted to inform you!
Nice to know, but does that depend on how it’s processed? Like would it still apply to an organic bamboo fabric?
The viscose rayon made from bamboo requires pretty nasty solvents, and that’s the stuff used to make soft stuff like underpants. It can also be made into a stiffer thread more like linen without a chemical process.
Good to know.
Organic cotton is actually way softer than regular cotton. I forget the explanation that I read, but I think it has something to do with using a better variety.
lol I was memeing but this is good info. Which is your preferred fabric for undies? I live in a hot climate so cotton and wool are not preferred…
Bamboo and micromodal make good underwear. I haven’t tried them in the summer yet so I don’t know how they hold up in heat and humidity.
Linen can be good for underwear. It’s very breathable, but sometimes it takes a few washes before it feels soft. Also, it doesn’t have any natural elasticity, so it needs an elastic waistband to stay up. Sometimes it has a drawstring, but I prefer the waistband personally. It’s also loose and flowy, so if you wear tight clothes and don’t want it bunching underneath, linen isn’t a good choice for underwear. If you wear loose, flowy clothes anyway, linen is a great choice.
If you’re willing to put out the expense, silk undies sound kinda awesome. Never tried that myself though so I’m not sure how breathable it is.
Personally, I love linen in general for hot weather. You can wear long sleeves to keep the sun off, and its so airy that you don’t even feel hot under your clothes. Especially if it’s a light color. It also dries quickly, so it’s not like cotton where once you sweat you’ll be wet all day. Spend thirty minutes in the shade on a breezy day, and your linen clothes will already be dry
U basedmaxxing and fibermogging no cap
Everyone thinks nudity is great until they remember how the average person actually looks
Or how much the sun will fuck you up
Or the lack of sun
This one is real
Maybe just a loin cloth then.
lol seeing ugly people doesn’t hurt you.
it hurts my soul
If you go with no plastic and no animal-based, turns out warm clothing is quite difficult make.
Can we though? Like, sure, as a personal choice, I could prioritize clothes made from non-plastics (and I do, though not religiously), but is there enough cotton and such available on the planet to meet every individual’s clothing needs? Because if we want to talk about it at a “reducing microplastics being generated” level, that’s what’s required in the end.
Plus supply and demand means that prices follow demand, so everyone doing this will drive up organic based clothing prices and drive down plastic based clothing prices.
Not saying we shouldn’t try to adjust our individual patterns, just that it gets more complicated as it scales up.
Clothes particles go right into the water, not air so much
I think this should be a big deal because we can probably do something about it. microplastics from clothing ought to be controllable by pollution regulations on manufacturers and filters on clothes washers
Or buying more clothes with natural fabrics
I’ve been considering the filter idea because it’s something in my control but it’s unclear if currently available Ones are effective
Edit: checked my water treatment since it’s supposed to be among the most advanced, and nope. It does not measure or treat PFAS or microplastics, and it sells treated sewage as fertilizer.
I see those contaminants are mostly blamed on leachate from landfills but that just narrows to the source where we should be doing something
Cotton, wool, linen, and leather as well as re-learning to mend and alter clothes instead of everything being fast and disposable. I feel like I’m in crazytown every time I go shopping, there’s so much god damn plastic everywhere.
Not even NO clothes and tires, just clothes and tires that aren’t made of plastic
It’s much easier to switch to clothes not made of plastic then it is to replace what we make tires out of.
cough train
I mean, yes. But that’s a different discussion.
Unfortunately not. Is there even another choice for tires that won’t shed microplastics? I’ve never read of one
That being said, someone was proposing an affordable way to filter runoff from highways that we should at least try
No, the choice between safely biodegradable tires vs petro tires is a separate discussion from better pubic transit to reduce the need for those tires.
A few things I’m going to point out though.
It’s not the run off into streams and into drinking water that’s the likely point of intake. It’s the air we breath, epically in cities or along major highways where people are intaking the plastic.
Don’t assume that just because something is natural means that it is completely harmless. Plenty of natural compounds are toxic.
The family of compounds that we need to be concerned about the most is PFAS. It is a synthetic, but it’s because it’s a forever chemical and doesn’t metabolize out of the body.
The first and easiest step would to remove the PFAS and create safe alternatives. It’s a weird Catch 22. It needs to be durable and long lasting so it doesn’t blow out on the highway, but it also needs to be weak and biodegradable so organic systems can break it down. EVs, even the EV busses, need even more durable tires as the torque is higher.
Even if you got wide spread train adoption, people still need to get to those trains and bikes still have rubber tires. Busses use less rubber compared to cars per person, but it’s still not zero.
Connecting mircoplastic from runoff seems like a wasted effort. What do you do with it afterwards? Burn it? Try and recycle it? Plastic is hard to recycle. Better to keep the most harmful plastics from being created in the first place.
I don’t see how this matters. It’s not whether that materials exist, but how much wear away into microplastics. Aside from the occasional kid screwing around, bicycles probably are not.
For sure it’s better that it not be created, however it is. Even if we were able to stop using it, there are mountains of goods already using it and goods already disposed of, leaching pollution into our air, our water, our food, our environment. Even if we were able to find away for tires to stop emitting microplastics, we have billions of tires that will continue to do so.
Easier than either to just stop making them.
Switch back to natural rubber?
Mandating that everyone in the public can no longer buy the huge variety of clothing styles that can only be achieved with synthetics would cause a giant uproar of opposition and would be almost impossible to get passed into law.
So would anything that makes world better.
Sure, but a gradually increasing tax on the production any plastic containing fabrics would help naturally phase it out.
Plus mandate a filter on clothes washers. I’m sure there would be an entire subculture of reactionaries dedicated to removing them but most people wouldn’t
Demand changes what is available. My local men’s fashion place now sells Hawaiian shirts made of natural fibres. Cotton underwear has always been available
Now I can easily get my brightly coloured clothes in reasonable fibres I’ll have nothing that loses micro plastics on me today
Though I may ride my bike and bike tyres have the same problems as car tyres though they wear much less
That’s why I buy clothes made with polyester! No plastic here! In fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen clothes with “plastic” as a material before…
Polyester is plastic.
Or are you being sarcastic? (I hate that this rhymes, it was totally unintentional…)
Iirc viscose, polyether etc., right?
I think some viscose can be plant-based. I could be wrong but I think they can make viscose from bamboo.
Yeah, it constantly degrades, we wash it directly into the water, and you can’t find clothes that are plastics-free.
Am I being naive when I believe that clothing is 100% cotton/linen because that’s what it says on the tag and there’s some tricksy shit like plastic thread not counting or are those also hard to find where you are?
Well, sorta - in some markets labels can also just be fake (or even in regulated markets I’m sure there can be “mistakes”), but in a lot of them the tags are just describing one (main) fabric.
So a plain shirt made from 100% cotton can be stitched together with a plastic thread. Or have elastic collar (ie plastic).
(Not to mention that you basically can’t get any data on die method used. Or exact fabric characteristics, like thread length. Or weave type. Etc.)
I’m most comfortable if the tag lists like 5 separate 100% items (eg ingredients of the main fabric, of the pocket liners, of buttons, of elastic bits, etc).
Everything is designed to fatigue you out & monetise your actions the most.
But with a lot of clothing you just can’t get non-plastic bits at all - like winter clothes, footwear, etc.
Even more depressive most/all such items have some pfas outer layer (like a teflon or teflon-like coating so it’s more hydrophobic/oleophobic & the water & dirt slides off). But we all breathe it in & it just stays there.
… and then there are ppl who worship clothes made from 100% artificial materials bcs they are “high tech” & have “good performance”.
Id like you to see you try that outside tropical climates.
You wouldn’t see much, unfortunately…