Chapter 1 Material Diversity

In chapter 1 Kate Fletcher writes about the basics necessity of sustainable textiles, the materials. Fletcher writes about some of the most commonly used materials (cotton, silk, linen, polyester,etc.) and their effect on the environment. Fletcher then elaborates on sustainable alternatives such as organic cotton, bamboo, hemp, and soya. The mainly focused on material is cotton. Fletcher goes into depth on low chemical cotton, low water use cotton , and fair trade cotton. Fletcher does a good job of providing information on each side of the argument and seeming fairly unbiased, an example of this is in the quote." Cultivating 1kg of cotton for example draws on as much as 8000 liters of water. In comparison producing 1kg of polyester uses little or no water. Polyester manufacture does however consume twice the energy needed to make the same amount of cotton" (Fletcher, p.7) Fletcher does a good job of providing information on each type of fiber, however; there could definitely be more information provided on silk, linen, etc. The book provides many charts based upon the information. These charts include the demand for fiber, environmental costs per each stage in the lifecycle of a cotton t-shirt, and energy and water consumption on each type of fiber. This chapter of the book aids the reader to basic information about fibers and sustainability that she implies will be elaborated upon in the later chapters.