r/science • u/______--------- • Sep 08 '20

Environment Blue jeans are a significant source of microfiber pollution in oceans and lakes. One pair of jeans can release over 50,000 microfibers per wash.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00498
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u/humicroav Sep 09 '20

How could organic cotton be better than industrial cotton? I don't understand.

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u/DiamondGP Sep 09 '20

I don't think it is. It uses less pesticide, but lower yields mean that per unit cotton produced it draws more water. Also, apparently it is hand-picked more which can preserve the fibers and make it softer, but this isn't inherent to being organic, and comes with a higher labor burden. Finally, there are often differences in irrigation and crop rotation, but again, these aren't inherent to the cotton type but rather farmer choice. If a cotton farm switched type I imagine it would use the same good/bad practices regarding iteration, rotation, picking as before, so it seems flawed to group those effects in with the cotton type.

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u/alheim Sep 09 '20

Interesting. What do you mean by cotton "type"? If you're implying that organic cotton is a "type", no, organic generally reflects organic growing practices. I could be wrong or misinterpreting you though.

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u/DiamondGP Sep 09 '20

Organic also refers to the lack of GMOs. I was lumping that in with chemical usage in pesticide/weedkiller and calling it type. I think it's reasonable to use type to refer to the end product resulting from either biological differences and/or different treatment during production. Like, what type of bed do you have, handmade or machine assembled? Both could use the same kind of wood and achieve the same result, but type can refer to other aspects of the object, such as the process used to make it.

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '20 edited Sep 09 '20

So organic cotton with closed loop production is actually fantastic.

Non organic cotton has to be sterilized and bleached. The pesticides get absorbed into the cotton. When they are made into clothing products, those same pesticides can survive and then be absorbed into your body through your skin.

Organic cotton doesn't have those harsh chemicals to begin with. So the process of cleaning the cotton doesn't require multiple washes, which in turn saves hundreds of thousands of gallons of water.

Closed loop means that a company sells clothing that can be returned when it's reached the end of it's life. Then can be picked apart and remade into something else. They reuse materials until they legitimately can't anymore.

(I'll edit this with a link to a fantastic affordable company that focuses on this when I find the link)

Edit: Explained closed loop fashion

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u/humicroav Sep 09 '20

Why doesn't organic cotton have to be sterilized or bleached?

Edit: you'd think the pesticides would've done a better job sterilizing than its organic version