I am a writer and executive administrator for Trusted Clothes, which is an ethical and sustainable fashion organization. The following is a series devoted in honor of the work done in collaboration with the Schroeckers and the Trusted Clothes team.
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The how much and the what now? (Yep, me too.)
Okie dokie, it’s another issue of natural fibres, If you aren’t familiar with fibres or fabrics, then see the article below:
Related Article: Sustainable Fabrics- The Good
Man-made fibres are regenerated and synthetic fibres. Synthetic fibres are manufactured synthetically and do not decompose. While regenerated fibres are an admixture of natural fibres and man-made fibres. In that, regenerated fibres are the ones that are originally plant or vegetable fibres with cellulose in them, and through the viscose method of extrusion and precipitation are given a chemical that gets rid of cellulose in the vegetable fibre. And then by another chemical process have those parts filled in with another chemical so that they then become regenerated fibres. Therefore, the regenerated fibres are a combination of original vegetable fibres and then by chemical process becoming man-made fibres are regenerated fibres.
Man-made, synthetic or regenerated fibres do not decompose. Natural fibres – that’s fibres and animal fibres and mineral fibres – do decompose. There are many methods to decompose things by a hot or cold compost, or with wiggler worms.
Related Article: A How-To Composting Your Clothes
So we’re going to be talking a little bit today about mineral fibres. What are they?
They are, or more accurately it is asbestos, which is the only mineral fibre. It is a silicate of many minerals including magnesium, calcium, iron, aluminium, and other minerals. It is, amazingly, rust, flame, and acid proof. And its particles are actually carcinogenic and therefore it has a very restricted use.
What is a silicate? Silicate contains an anionic silicon compound. What is “anionic”? It is a negatively charged ion or any negatively charged atom or group of atoms. That means silicate is simply an anionic silicon compound and a mixture. A mineral fibre from asbestos can be made into something like a mineral wool. They can also be known as a mineral fibre or even a man-made mineral fibre.
Well, isn’t that great? Find out about a new fibre, a good ol’ natural fibre, but it is carcinogenic or cancer contributing or causing. I’m not sure whether if they’re contributing or if they’re causing. And I have to take caution at this point in time about the length of exposure and kind of exposure to the asbestos. However, it might be a little bit like the smoking correlation vs causation argument.
Where the amount of smoke that an individual or population smokes is highly correlated with cancer, which shows that cigarettes are so correlative as to be argued as causative of cancer, maybe the same with these. Although we haven’t found any conclusive evidence or studies to suggest that prolonged exposure to mineral fibres (such as in clothing) can cause cancer, we do absorb toxins through our skin.
That’s an interesting property there’s not much more on these little things. However, I think that it was worth exploring for a little bit. Especially because these are actually used in tremendous amounts of housing insulation, and I think that’s worthwhile as a thing to explore or for yourself. You can simply Google “mineral fibre” and “asbestos” (or Bing or Yahoo, etc, etc) to gain a better idea of this particular natural fibre. That’s all for now thanks for your time!
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Original publication on www.trustedclothes.com.
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Image Credit: Getty Images.