Can Cotton Save the Oceans from Environmental Catastrophe?.

In 2010, Cotton Incorporated completed the first comprehensive global LCA on cotton.  This LCA traced cotton from the growth phase all the way to garment use and disposal.  Transparency and reliable data development was the key focus.  In this study, hot spots for cotton were water and nutrient use in the growth phase, while manufacturing and garment use phases were found to be significant contributors to several impact categories.   A critically reviewed global cotton LCA that incorporated a global consumer use phase was released in 2017 and showed lower contributions from garment use and disposal.   In contrast, an emerging environmental problem, centering on synthetic and man-made fiber shedding during the consumer use phase, is going unmonitored and unmeasured.   Every time a consumer washes their clothes, hundreds of fibers are released down the drain and out the dryer vent, ultimately ending up in streams and oceans where they are consumed by aquatic life.  There are many papers which report on the breadth and depth of the current situation and this dilemma is the focus of environmental committees world-wide.  The question remains as to how synthetic and man-made fiber producers and users will reflect this environmental concern through their LCA data.  Standards and test method development are needed to predict and quantify the burden synthetic and man-made fibers place on aquatic life as well as the potential down-stream implications of microfiber release.