Final week I wrote about the loopwheel knitter Aigat, probably the most specialised producers of loopwheel cloth – for sweatshirts, T-shirts and so on – in Japan. 

One thing I needed to avoid wasting for a separate article was the show they’d of their reception, the place they’d decomposed completely different materials of their backyard. 

The manufacturing facility is ready in enticing grounds, with water pouring down from the mountains behind. Establishing them, and working the manufacturing facility alongside environmental traces, has been a ardour of the founder. 

In the course of the backyard is a pleasing pond, however a number of years in the past the group stuffed the entire thing and components of the backyard with lengths of material, made up of various fibres (cotton, rayon, polyester). 

The concept was to have private, bodily expertise of how significantly better pure materials – like their very own – break down within the surroundings. 

The outcomes are displayed in chronological order on the board, under. 

The primary strip on the left is the unique cloth. The strips with pink labels on the prime are those that have been buried within the floor (after 50 days, 100 days, 200 days, as labelled), whereas the blue labels are those who have been within the pond (once more, after 50, 100 and 200 days). 

The strips themselves are then divided vertically into completely different fibres. First, two completely different finenesses of polyester, then a polyester/cotton combine, then two finenesses of rayon, and at last cotton.

In case you click on on the picture, it ought to open in a lightbox, and you’ll then click on on it once more to zoom in. Or you may proper click on and open in a brand new tab, and zoom in there.

The rayon was the primary to go – an artificial cloth, however after all made with regenerated pure cellulose, so it broke down simply.  

The cotton is simply simply seen, mendacity on the desk on the backside, however it broke down just a bit slower than the rayon, largely eaten away within the water after 50 days, and utterly gone after 100. 

However the polyester saved going and going. After 200 days, in water or soil, it had shrunk a bit however was in any other case high quality. 

Maybe scariest of all is the cotton/polyester combine. You may assume this is able to be a bit higher than pure polyester, however it’s just about the identical, regardless of a few of the cotton breaking down. 

I wasn’t shocked on the outcomes, however it was highly effective seeing the method reasonably than simply being advised about it.  

It additionally made me admire rayon (or viscose) a bit extra. There are many issues flawed with it after all, together with the supplies lower all the way down to make it and the processes used, however it’s actually higher than polyester and nylon on this respect. Different pure supplies utilized in high-end menswear, corresponding to wools and vegetable-tanned leathers, are additionally higher in that manner.

We in all probability cannot get into all of the nuances of fabric sustainability right here – and quantity of consumption is mostly the most important challenge – however on this one side the purpose is fairly compelling.

Aigat, I ought to add, solely use pure cotton and generate their manufacturing energy 60-70% from photo voltaic panels on the roof. Actively rising the backyard helps a bit with the CO2 emissions as properly. 

For extra on PS about sustainability, see: