Mar 25, 2021
Cotton is known for its flexibility and use across many industries. Did you know that approximately 27 million tons of cotton is produced annually on a global scale? That’s 27 t-shirts for every person on earth. Most clothing is made from conventionally produced cotton, which uses GMOs (genetically modified organisms) which are amongst the most toxic chemicals as classified by the Environmental Protection Agency. It’s time to make a difference and look to organic cotton.
What is organic cotton?
Simply put, organic cotton is produced in the opposite way of conventional cotton. The production of organic cotton sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people by using natural processes, methods and materials that have a low impact on the overall environment. Organic cotton uses 91% less water, 62% less energy, 46% less CO2-emissions, 26% less soil erosion and zero use of synthetic chemicals. It’s better for mother earth and its people.
How do we really know it’s organic?
Just because a garment is labeled as green, sustainable or eco-friendly does not make it organic. Cotton clothing is only organic if it is certified to an organic cotton standard. Although there are many organic certifications available, we will focus on three. The global leading standard is GOTS – Global Organic Textile Standard (not to be confused with GOAT – Grammy, Oscar, Academy and Tony). GOTS is the leading textile processing standard that traces the organic content in clothes and ensures that it is processed socially and sustainably and meets the highest and strictest list of standards and protocols. It not only promotes the environmental safety of cotton, the certification includes fair trade, wage and safety standards and supports farmers who grow organic cotton and the manufacturers who work with cotton.
Organic Content Standard (OCS) provides third party assurance that the organic content in clothes can be traced back to source.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 tests products throughout the manufacturing process and ensures there are no harmful and banned chemicals. Product certified under OEKO_TEX may carry the STeP (Sustainable Textile Production) or Made in Green labels.
When shopping for cotton products choose organic and check for certification.
At Marrin, we can help guide you through the world of sustainable materials and what each mean to our environment. Our stringent testing is performed by an international third party inspection agency.
Sources:
World Cotton Production Statistics – TheWorldCounts
The Standard – GOTS (global-standard.org)
Sustainable Textile and Leather Production (STeP) by OEKO-TEX® (oeko-tex.com)
Cover Photo by Kolya Korzh on Unsplash