The frustration of trying to buy textiles made of natural fibers

Good afternoon!

I have not been very good about blogging. Spring is an especially busy time around our homestead. With 2 kids (who spend half of their time at their dad’s house in salt lake, which means I spend approximately 16 or more hours a week driving), a small business, chickens, other pets and a pretty substantial garden with lots of yardwork, this has been put on the backburner, however…

My most recent effort toward a plastic free life has been textiles. This includes clothing, bedding, towels etc… I do get many of our clothes second hand and when I do that I do not focus as much on natural fibers (although I do still check tags and am more likely to buy if they are natural fibers). Natural fibers include cotton, hemp, bamboo, and linen. Many of you probably do not realize that nearly all of your clothes are partially, or completely made of plastic/ synthetics. These include polyester, rayon, nylon, acrylic, spandex, and others that are labeled in misleading ways such as “bamboo rayon” or “bamboo viscose”. This is an excellent article about plastics in clothing and how to avoid them https://www.sustainablerookie.com/fashion/your-clothes-are-made-of-plastic

There are several frustrations when attempting to make this change. As noted in the article above 60 percent of our clothes are made of plastic (and I have found, in Utah at least that this number is much higher). Of that 60%, 63 percent of those are made of virgin plastic. Plastic never goes away and will always be in our environment. It does not biodegrade and as I said in my previous blog post, is by and large not recyclable and/or just not recycled due to a huge laundry list of issues. In clothing/ textiles this results in huge amounts of microplastics that are introduced into the water supply every time we wash them.

My current frustration is the expense, and the amount of research that has to be done in order to insure you are not purchasing an item that is made of plastic. To purchase an item that is not made with plastics typically costs at least 3 times the amount as a comparable item made of plastic materials. In addition, when you search for an item that is not made with plastic, for example “cotton duvet cover” you will get many results that, upon further scrutiny are actually not made of cotton. You won’t see that part without searching the entire sales post until you reach “materials”, at which point it will say “rayon, polyester etc…” and then you have to know that these materials are, in fact plastic, and not remotely “cotton”, even though they are never advertised or mentioned as such. This takes an inordinate amount of time and patience (which, for those of you who know me, are always in short supply). It should not have to be this difficult, expensive and time consuming to locate and purchase an item that is sustainable to life on this planet.

Comments, concerns, questions etc… are welcome. Also if you have any great leads on companies that sell solely such items at fairly affordable prices I would love to compile a list. Please email me at shandie.knorr@gmail.com or message me via facebook messenger.

Upcoming blog posts will go through my house, room by room with the swaps I have made over the past 15 years. This is just what’s “getting my goat” today.

Sending love,

Shandie