organic cotton

NOT ALL ORGANIC IS THE SAME

Organic cotton benefits us by protecting the environment. Our  GOTS (Global Organic Textile Standard)  cotton causes less water footprint and fewer carbon footprint. The cotton has been grown on fields without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides or defoliants. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and locally adapted inputs in place of chemical inputs which can have an adverse effect on the farmer and the environment genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are prohibited in organic products. Cotton fibers represent 26% of total fibers in the world and Organic cotton counts for less than 1% of the total cotton production.

We rely on Global Organic Textile Standard  because it contains at least 95% certified organic fibers. But another kind of standard is often used in fast fashion that allows that fabric with only 5% organic is certified as organic mistaking to customers. We have raw cotton and fabric certification. There are no  certified manufacturing companies in Spain where we can produce our garments.

ENVIROMENTAL BENEFITS

Results indicate that organically grown cotton has the following average potential impact savings over conventional:

  • Reduce impact on wildlife: 70 % reduced acidification potential, and 65 % percent reduced eutrophication potential.[2]
  • Without fertilizer or less irrigation and tractor operation needed our organic cotton uses: 70 % less primary energy demand (non-renewable). [1]
  • Reducing the water footprint. Conventional textile industry fabrics go through more than twenty different finishing processes, most of them wet ones. Impregnating, spraying, fatigue tests, coatings, softeners, anti-crease treatments, anti-microbe treatments, fungicides, antiseptics, enzyme treatments, humectants, and many more.It is applied just one washing process to remove the vegetable fats deriving from the weaving process.
  • We still don’t know our blue water organic cotton from Turkey.We just know conventional cotton is mostly irrigated in the Aegean region. Conventional cotton: 1kg cotton lint consumes 6.564 liters, and 1kg of gray fabric is 6.840 liters ( dyed will add 496 liters more.) Pag 192 .[3]
  • The Dutchman Arjen Hoekstra, the father of the concept of water footprint, estimates that to make a pair of jeans weighing 1kg requires about 10.850 liters of water of which 4900 liters comes from irrigation from blue water and 4400 from green water and 1500 gray water footprint.
  • Results indicate that organically grown cotton has the following average potential impact savings over conventional:

WHY DOES IT COST MORE?

Organic cotton is more expensive to grow than conventional because organically grown crops still must contend with weeds and fight devouring insects.It is more expensive to harvest because it is done without the use of conventional chemical harvest-aids and is more labor intensive resulting in higher harvest costs. Organic fabrics are more expensive to manufacture. Because of the relatively small quantities of cotton involved, it is more expensive to gin, clean and manufacture organic cotton fabric, all the cotton gins and weaving and knitting machines must be cleaned of all residues from the processing of the conventional cotton. This all contributes to increasing the costs for producing organic cotton fabrics.

HIGHER QUALITY

The cotton fibre is much stronger than conventional cotton because the fibre is not weakened by the chemical cleansers or dyes. We recommend cold wash for best results and the least shrinkage. Conventional cotton apparel is generally treated with chemicals during finishing reducing the shrinkage effects of heat. Organic cotton is not treated, so in high heat it is possible for the cotton to shrink more. We have sanforized our denim twill cotton, reducing it to a minimum.