Fabrics:
At Modrobes our fabrics are chosen based on two components:
1) Fabric made mostly from recycled materials and/or 2)a fabric that is measured to be environmentally friendly throughout it's process from raw material to fabric. While there may be many fabrics that claim to be eco friendly (ex.bamboo) we avoid any untested or unmeasured claims about a fabrics' impact on the environment by using environment, health and safety auditors(Bluesign Technologies AG) to oversee the mills where the fabric is made and to act as an advisory on a fabric's sustainability.
We will not use any fabrics that are not eco friendly.
Our suppliers are partners in a better, cleaner business model.
Our major supplier of fabric is Bluesign approved and compared to 2006 the company has saved the use of 160 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas(down 16.6%) and reduced its use of fuel oil by 3,745 kilolitres(down 11.7%) Water consumption in the manufacturing process decreased by 40% in 2007.
This equates to a reduction in emissions of CO2 by 14,422 tons.
To make polyester:
Below are brief descriptions of the processes involved in the production of ordinary polyester and of recycled polyester.
To make Polyester:
Mine exploration plus petroleum mining(land) or drilling (ocean) plus petroleum transportation(boat, pipeline, rail and truck)
At the polyester refinement factory:
Chemical treatment 1:Terephthalic acid plus chemical treatment 2:Dimethl terephthalate plus chemical treatment 3: Bis-chydroxyethyl isopholate plus crush, melt and shred into polyester fibres
To make recycled polyester:
Collect bottles plus compact bottles plus transport bottles(boat, rail and truck)
At the polyester refinement factory:
Crush, melt and shred into polyester fibres
Recycled Polyester:
uses 80% less energy
reduces air, water and soil contamination
reduces use of energy and oil
reduces non-biodegradable landfill matters
reduces toxic emissions from incinerators
reduces pollution and land degradation
Recycled Cotton Fleece with recycled polyester(65/35):
Made from pre-consumer cotton "table waste" clippings from cut and sew factories that otherwise would be dumped in landfills. Recycled cotton does not need to be dyed. There are no chemicals or liquids used in the process.
There are currently five to six billion pounds of cotton "table waste" from cut and sew facilities currently finding its way into landfills in the U.S. alone.
Recycled Cotton takes less energy and water to process
Traditional Cotton:
It takes a 1/3 of a pound of agricultural chemicals to produce one cotton t-shirt.
It takes 9 years of human drinking water to produce one t-shirt. Cotton requires 22,000 litres of fresh water to produce 1 kilogram of cotton making it the most water intensive crop in the world.
Cotton uses 25% of the world's insecticides even though it uses only 2.4% of the world's land.
because cotton's oily based characteristics prevent most water based treatments from sticking to it, dryers and other finishers resort to other chemicals such as formaldehyde and heavy metals to finish cotton fabric.
Cotton consumes 60% of insecticides applied in the U.S.
Eucalyptus and/or Tencel:
Tencel is made from eucalyptus wood taken exclusively from forest plantations that practice sustainability. Eucalyptus grows quickly and without any artificial irrigation or gene manipulation.
Compared to conventional cotton, the use of water and pesticides plays no role whatsoever in the cultivation of eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus can also be planted on so-called marginal lands which cannot be used for for the production of food products.
The fiber yield of tencel is also ten times higher than with conventional cotton. One t-shirt of cotton can be extracted from 6 metres squared of soil and ten t-shirts made of tencel.
The "closed loop" production process of tencel means that no harmful chemicals are released into the environment. This manufacturing process has received the "European Award for the Environment".
NO Bamboo:
Unfortunately the process of creating Bamboo fabric is highly toxic. Bamboo has been promoted as environmentally friendly but the process as never fully analysed. At Modrobes, we use environmental auditors to advise us about the best and most environmentally clean fabrics so that our customers can feel good about their real effect on the environment bu buying our products.
