哪些面料是最可持续的?

哪些面料是最可持续的?

Learn about a fabric's production and disposal in order to make an informed choice while shopping.

了解织物的生产和处理，以便在购物时做出明智的选择。

CC BY 2.0. Marco Verch

Every piece of clothing has an impact on the environment, but the big question is how much of an impact? Shoppers concerned about the entire life cycle of their clothing should learn about the production process that goes into making fabrics and where they end up after use, as some are harder on the planet than others. The following guide to fabrics is hardly comprehensive, but it’s a good introduction to points worth considering next time you’re out shopping.

每一件衣服都对环境有影响，但最大的问题是影响有多大?关心衣服整个生命周期的消费者应该了解制作布料的生产过程，以及它们在使用后的位置，因为在这个星球上，有些面料比其他面料更硬。下面的布料指南并不全面，但它是一个很好的介绍，值得你下次外出购物时考虑。

1. LINEN

亚麻

Tradlands -- A comfortable linen button-up shirt/CC BY 2.0

Linen is a plant-based fabric made from flax which can be grown on rough terrain that’s unsuitable for food production. It can be cultivated and processed without chemicals, though this is more commonly found in Europe and less so in China.

亚麻料是一种由亚麻制成的植物面料，它可以生长在不适合粮食生产的不平整的土地上。它可以在不使用化学物质的情况下种植和加工，不过这种情况在欧洲比较常见，在中国较少。

2. COTTON

棉

kelly -- Handmade cotton shirt and jeans (also cotton!)/CC BY 2.0

Cotton is a natural plant-based fiber that makes up a quarter of all fabric used in clothing, furniture, and other textile blends, such as rayon and synthetics. It is a durable, breathable, and highly versatile fabric. It is also biodegradable, which is a huge plus, considering the damage being caused by synthetic fabrics.

棉是一种天然的植物纤维，在所有用于服装、家具和其他纺织混纺物(如人造丝和合成纤维)的织物中占四分之一。它是一种耐用，透气，高用途的织物。它也是可生物降解的，考虑到合成纤维的破坏，这是一个巨大的优势。

Cotton, however, uses a tremendous amount of water (3 percent of global water use, according to the UN), pesticides (7 percent of all chemicals used for agriculture in the U.S.), and arable land (2 percent globally). In other words, it’s a resource hog. Organic cotton can improve the chemical effect, but it tends to require more land because crop yields decrease.

然而，棉花消耗了大量的水(根据联合国的数据，全球用水的3%)，杀虫剂(美国农业使用的所有化学物质的7%)和耕地(全球2%)。换句话说，它是一个浪费资源的面料。有机棉花可以提高化学效应，但它往往需要更多的土地，因为作物产量下降。

3. WOOL

羊毛

kelly -- Cozy wool pants/CC BY 1.0

If you’re comfortable with the fact that wool is an animal product, this could be the most environmentally friendly option. Wool is tough, wrinkle-resistant, resilient (which means good at retaining its original shape), and it can “absorb up to 30 percent of its weight in moisture before feeling damp” (Dress Well Do Good). It holds colorful dyes easily, without use of chemicals.

如果你对羊毛是动物产品这一事实感到满意，这可能是最环保的选择。羊毛坚韧、抗皱、有弹性(这意味着它能很好地保持原来的形状)，而且它能“在感觉潮湿之前吸收其重量的30%的水分”(穿好衣服也行)。它容易携带彩色染料，不使用化学物质。

The biggest issue with wool is the methane emissions from burping sheep. An estimated 50 percent of wool’s carbon footprint comes from the sheep themselves, as opposed to other fabric industries whose larger emissions hail from the fabric production process. These sheep, however, are usually raised on non-arable land.

羊毛最大的问题是绵羊排放的甲烷。据估计，羊毛的碳足迹有50%来自绵羊本身，而其他织物行业的碳排放量更多来自织物生产过程。然而，这些羊通常是在非耕地上饲养的。

4. RAYON & MODAL

人造丝和莫代尔

Brentano -- A pile of rayon-cotton-polyester blended fabric/CC BY 2.0

These man-made fabrics are made from cellulose. In the case of modal, the cellulose comes from softwood trees, and viscose rayon is usually bamboo. While the raw crop is biodegradable, the chemicals required to transform it into fabric, including carbon disulfide, are unsafe.

这些人造织物是由纤维素制成的。如莫代尔，纤维素来自软木树，粘胶人造丝通常是竹子。虽然原料作物是可生物降解的，但将其转化为织物所需的化学物质，包括二硫化碳，是不安全的。

If the fabric is processed mechanically, rather than chemically, it has a much smaller impact. This is called ‘bamboo linen’ but it’s harder to find and more expensive.

如果对织物进行机械加工，而不是化学加工，其影响要小得多。这被称为“竹制亚麻”，但它很难找到，也更贵。

5. POLYESTER

聚酯纤维

© Charlie Schuck for Girlfriend Collective

Polyester currently dominates the clothing industry, found in 60 percent of clothing. People like it for its stretchiness, durability, and comfort, but it’s important to remember that it’s a plastic manufactured from crude oil (an energy-intensive process). Even though some manufacturers are adding recycled polyester, often sourced from plastic bottles, to their fabrics, these have the same environmental repercussions as new polyester, which researchers are only just starting to understand.

目前，涤纶在服装行业中占主导地位，60%的服装使用涤纶。人们喜欢它的弹性、耐用性和舒适性，但重要的是要记住，这是一种从原油中制造出来的塑料(一个能源密集型的过程)。尽管一些制造商在他们的织物中加入了可回收的聚酯纤维(通常是从塑料瓶中提取的)，但它们与新聚酯纤维具有同样的环境影响，这一点研究人员才刚刚开始了解。

What we know now is that every wash releases plastic microfibers into waterways and these persist indefinitely, contaminating lakes and oceans and getting ingested by animals and, indirectly, by humans.

我们现在知道的是，每次洗涤都会将塑料超细纤维释放到水道中，这些纤维会无限期地持续存在，污染湖泊和海洋，被动物摄入，甚至间接地被人类摄入。