Green Clothes

Rachel McAdams, the Canadian superstar is campaigning to help the environment in a new way. She has been coaxing women around the world to use lingerie made from bamboo to help save the environment from global warming.

Rachel, who has acted in many movies, became a star after her role in the movie Notebook which was an adaptation of Nicholas Spark’s novel of the same name. She then started using her celebrity status to support environmental issues. She has even launched an environmental website called greenissexy.org. This website, a joint creation of three friends including Rachel, gives you numerous environment friendly tips to use in your daily life to help reduce your carbon footprint.

Bamboo underwear she says is, “a very sexy thing to do”, in addition she says, “They sound quite painful but they’re actually quite soft. I’ve also got soy underwear!”

Bamboo has many different environmental benefits as it is a renewable source and produces more oxygen compared to most trees on our planet. Now, environmentalists and fashion designers have come together to produce bamboo underwear. They are not what you might imagine them to be. Like Rachel says, there are quite soft. In fact, they are as comfortable as any other underwear you’d ever wear. Another benefit of bamboo underwear is that it dries at a faster rate compared to regular cloth underwear. They also allow your body to breathe better, this helps in dealing with odor problems as well and above everything else they are chemical free.

Rachel and her friends have been doing a fantastic job with their website for the past two years. On the eve of the websites second anniversary she said, “We’re coming on our two-year anniversary of GreenIsSexy.org and the environmental community has really opened up online. That’s the amazing thing about the Internet – for all the problems and concerns, the relationships you can develop with people who are on the same wavelength and deeply care about the same things is immediate and it’s vast.”

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The terms ‘sustainable clothing’ and ‘organic clothing’ are often used together and both essentially belong to the same genre of eco-friendly clothing materials. Although, they serve the same purpose and can be broadly classified as Green eco-fashion materials there are a few minor difference between the two. The difference doesn’t lie in their approach to the concept of being green or eco-friendly but their origins.

While organic clothing evolved from the movement of organically developed materials, sustainable clothing is more of an environmental consciousness that is slowly gaining momentum. Sustainable clothing also emphasizes upon the recycling of goods in our daily use. Essentials for a clothing material to be considered suited for ecological purposes, i.e. being sustainable:

• Clothing material is derived from renewable/recycled raw materials
• Efficient use of production resources such as energy, manpower and water with preference for using renewable inputs for manufacturing
• Creating absolutely safe clothing material with regards to consumer health and the environment

Some Of The Most Noteworthy Materials Used In Sustainable Clothing

1. Bamboo

Bamboo is best suited for clothing meant for the hotter temperatures. It can absorb the sweat and lets it evaporate within seconds. This creates a natural mechanism of dispelling heat and maintaining fabric breathability. New fabrics being created from bamboo are equally adept for keeping you warmer in colder conditions. Bamboo-created clothing is naturally anti-bacterial and odor free.

How is it sustainable?

• Bamboo grows without any artificial assistance, i.e. it is totally natural and sustainable as it doesn’t need pesticides and fertilizers
• Bamboo plant is not uprooted like other plants. This helps to maintain the soil’s stability.
• Bamboo yield in terms of per acre is nearly 10 times more than that for cotton
• More bamboo plantations will mean more neutralization of greenhouse gases

2. Lyocell

This is produced from the cellulose found in wood. This makes Lyocell one of the purest forms of sustainable clothing. The fabric adheres to all quality demands meant for medical or technical compatibility.

How is it sustainable?

• Its production is extremely eco-friendly and doesn’t use harmful dyes and chemicals and the Lyocell fiber is 100% bio-degradable
• The end product is strikingly similar to cotton and hence, this makes it a very useful substitute for current manufacturing demands
• Since, it is derived from wood, it can be regarded as the most replenishable and hence, the most sustainable form of clothing
• Cellulose extraction uses nearly negligible artificially-produced extraction agents

3. Hemp

It is famous for being the most durable among all natural fibers and is often called the miracle fiber. It is lightweight, long-lasting, highly-absorbent and much stronger than other fibers. It is best suited for outdoor wear being weather resistant.

How is it sustainable?

• Hemp crop does not need pesticides and uses a very little amount of water
• It is known for enriching the soil where it is grown since it has an exhaustive root system which also helps to prevent soil-erosion
• Extremely cost-effective to grow and has minimal agricultural requirements

4. Soy Fiber

Soy blended or pure soy fiber clothing has some excellent qualities like having a luster that is similar to silk and absorbs moisture like cotton. However, it offers the best of ventilation when compared with these two conventional fabrics.

How is it sustainable?

• Its manufacturing is an example of bioengineering and proteins are extracted from sources like soybean oil and soymilk
• This makes it a recycled product, since it is akin to creating something useful from a conventional manufacturing process
• It is highly sustainable since by-products like soybean dregs are further used as fodder or natural fertilizer

5. Organic Cotton

Organic cotton is a huge improvement over the traditionally-grown cotton. For starters, it is grown following strict regulations that prevent the use of chemicals that can enter the fiber. Even its harvesting is less automated to ensure that the soil isn’t being drained. Perhaps, the only natural resource it does drain to a certain extent is water.

How is it sustainable?

• Organic cotton is grown in a manner that actually replenishes the ecosystem rather than exhausting its nutrients
• It is grown without using conventional chemical/toxic pesticides or synthetic fertilizers
• Only certified or organic facilities are allowed to procure/manufacture organic clothing and they use only low-impact dyes or mineral-based shades that don’t affect the consumers or the environment

Technorati Tags: bamboo, eco fashion, eco friendly, hemp, lyocell, organic clothing, organic cotton, renewable, soy, sustainable clothing