Organic Textiles more popular

Organics: it's not just for food and cosmetics anymore. Organics has reached the textile sector, prompting consumers to ask questions about where their textile products come from and to investigate the social and ethical values behind these products. Since 1989, the International Working Group on Global Organic Textile Standard integrated by International Association Natural Textile Industry (Germany), Soil Association (England), Organic Trade Association (USA) and Japan Organic Cotton Association (Japan) have been working towards a harmonized worldwide recognized organic textile standard. 2005 saw the approval of the first Version of the Global Organic Textile Standard and its implementation scheme.

These considerations are not just in the planning stages either - consider the evidence in these developments around the world:

• African organic cotton projects, bioRe India and bioRe Tanzania, are rapidly expanding their activities, especially in India, where the number of bioRe farmers has skyrocketed by 2,700 farmers since last year
• Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), Europe's second largest clothing retailer by sales, has said it will continue to increase its use of organic cotton in certain clothing ranges and revealed it has already exceeded its original target of 100 tons of organic cotton for 2007
• Japan's speedy bullet trains are now lighter, more fuel efficient and have a higher proportion of recyclable components due to a new polyester-based textile fabric from Teijin Fibres Limited.

Good news also lies in the fact that the world is cracking down on poor quality. Officials in New Zealand launched an investigation after children's garments imported from China were found to contain very high levels of formaldehyde (900 times higher than the recommended safety limit.) This news comes on the heels of the more widely reported recall by Mattel of 18.2 million toys made in China due to hazards such as the use of lead paint.

There is still a long way to go in the textile sector and related industries, but if sales for apparel made from organic cotton have grown from 85 million $US in 2003 to 500 million in 2006 in the United States, there is hope that more companies will join more sustainable ways of textile production. The global market for organic cotton apparel has reached 1.2 billion (www.OrganicExchange.com).

Gloria Neumann