For years the idea of a traditionally dressed American has been in jeans and a t-shirt, all decked out in traditionally produced cotton. Cotton is the ubiquitous American (really, world-wide) clothing fiber, and like most things that we consume with reckless abandon, there are many quite serious problems associated with it. In particular, pesticides. The stats that are thrown around are that 10% of the world’s herbicides and 25% of the world’s insecticides are used for cotton. There are also issues with the way that the United States’ dominance over the market (a 41% worldwide market share according to wikipedia), utilizing price supports and subsidies, contributes to Third World poverty.

I have long fallen prey to the “disposable clothing” phenomenon (NYT via Treehugger), buying clothes as absolutely cheap as possible. And of course, they fall apart rapidly. However, while Wal-Mart and Madison Avenue are not moving quickly towards sustainable clothing, there is a large movement towards shifting our manufactured clothing supply to use sustainable materials.

Organic Cotton

A few weeks ago I needed some new undershirts, and decided to go organic. There are a variety of manufacturers out there (see the organic cotton directory); I ended up going with Maggie’s Organics, due to their commitment to 100% organic cotton, as well as their utilization of fair trade in manufacturing their clothes. The shirts were certainly more than the disposable kind at Wal-Mart (13.95 for one shirt, rather than $10 for 3), but the payoff was great. The shirt is actually more comfortable than the bleached, poor-quality shirts I used to buy, and it can be worn with pride.

There are many other materials that are alternatives to plain old cotton. Of course the two conventional alternatives to cotton are wool and polyester. However, to me I feel that both of these fabrics have their own issues: wool is not always gathered in the most humane of ways (and sheep can be particularly environmentally destructive) and polyester is made of petroleum products. This doesn’t mean that you can’t find sustainable alternatives to the traditional wool and polyester (Patagonia utilizes recycled polyester for their clothes, and there is a humane wool movement). But there are two other fabrics that I’ve tired out: hemp and bamboo.

Hemp and Bamboo

Hemp clothing is widely available (see a list of hemp clothing retailers http://www.greenpeople.org/Hemp.html ) and has proven to be far more durable than conventional cotton clothing. I get my hemp from Patagonia , who make very nice hemp shirts and pants. Hemp also has the benefit of being typically a looser weave, so that it keeps me cooler in the hot desert sun.

Bamboo clothing is just starting to move into the forefront of the alternative clothing world. Bamboo is a very fast growing plant, which also takes in five times the amount of CO2 of an equivalent stand of trees (benefits of bamboo), and can be spun into fabric. I got a Bamboo shirt from Kavu—the fabric is tough but supple, and does not wrinkle much. There are lots of other bamboo retailers out there if you search for them.

All decked out in my sustainable clothes, I feel like I’ve made a small stab at changing the way I dress myself, and the impact what I purchase has on the earth. While it will be some time before I can say I have a sustainable wardrobe, buying some organic, hemp, and bamboo clothing is a small start towards a better world.