Natural Clothing Blog

At the recent radio interview, consumers inquired “How green is bamboo clothing?” Is bamboo a true and viable eco-friendly material? Bamboo clothing is popping up more and more often, not just in selective boutiques but at the main chain retailers across the US. Always promoting it as being eco-friendly, sometimes organic, sometimes anti-bacterial. Is it true? In case of bamboo even green activists seem to be quite divided, so no wonder that general consumer is quite confused. The additional controversy is added by the fact that China is the only place where bamboo is processed,  simply that’s where the patent is closely held.

Well, to some extend it is an illusion that one plant, one fiber will be everything we want it to be, wearing a green halo around its leaves. The simplicity is that commercial manufacturing of anything is not a black and white (or green) process, period. Breaking down the fiber requires either significant mechanical (energy consuming) efforts and water or chemical processes. The true evaluation comes from looking across all the factors involved from start to end AND comparing it to alternatives. That places that product higher or lower on the scale of sustainability.

Bamboo as a crop is actually classified as grass and is one of the fastest growing plants on a planet. Talking about renewable – you cannot really beat that. On top of it, bamboo fends off the insects and pests very well, so it does not need chemical spraying and requires very little water to grow. A lot of eco friendly clothing is made from actually certified organic bamboo, grown in truly sustainable manner. When bamboo grows, magic happens – it processes carbon dioxide in volumes larger than similar size trees. That is probably actually the biggest benefit of bamboo crop where it truly earns our support. Bamboo unaltered fibers have also multitude of wonderful characteristics, mentioned later in the article.

The problem is that – according to Federal Trade Commission, there is no evidence that these properties actually stay with the fabric after is processed. Bamboo is processed a lot and at this time is not processed organically at all. The fibers are broken down and dissolved through series of chemical processes, sprayed through the small holes and then regenerated back again into cellulose fiber. The FTC requires calling “bamboo textile” a rayon or viscose, being chemically altered, not carrying the characteristics of original fiber and a man-made textile. For more information, go to www.ftc.gov and search bamboo. There are many types of viscose, some

created from wood, cotton and some – from bamboo in similar process. There is a lot of effort put into creating better processing methods and not releasing the chemicals but reused. There is also bamboo processed mechanically like flax but it’s not very common.

The finish viscose from bamboo is quite beautiful though it might vary depending on length of fibers. It is extremely soft, has beautiful sheen and it being anti-static drapes very well, allowing for flattering clothing.  Like I mentioned before there are legal limits of what I can say about viscose from bamboo but I can share my own experience. I was stunned when I used bamboo towels at first, it wicked water so well, much better than our old friend cotton. Bamboo is said to have anti-bacterial properties, similar to hemp or soy, which inhibits creation of body odor. Is it true?  My son loves wearing his bamboo Tee for PE classes (despite different intentions of his mother) because it absorbs the moisture so well and there is no unpleasant smell, same for his bamboo socks. That’s a sell! It is very comfortable and it washes very well without losing any color or getting much wrinkles. Probably the best is to give it a try – all in all considering the benefits of bamboo as crop, great properties of clothing itself and especially comparing it to oil derived polyesters, this textile has quite a lot to be respected for.

For more info visit http://www.naturalclothingcompany.com/bamboo_clothing

One can say – nothing; we say – everything. There are probably millions of us around the planet, aghast, upset and worried about the amount of devastation caused by Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Our technological incompetence in face of true catastrophes, the loss of lives, both human and marine, strips away the temporary narcissist faith in our control over the universe.

We were celebrating the Earth Day with our company in our small town, when the news reached media, 41 years after the 1969 Santa Barbra oil spill, which contributed to founding Earth Day itself. Together with number of local organic farms, businesses and organizations, we were acknowledging the accomplished progress in protection of the environment. The oil spill put a different perspective on that – are we really moving forward? There are some, like British The Dark Mountain movement, which see this civilization already past the point of return. As much as unreal this seems – look at the gone ancient cultures: ancient China, the pyramids, the Coliseum in ruins. Civilizations do rise and fall and mostly they destroy themselves.

Nature and our relationship to it are worth a double look each day. Acts of nature are often unpredictable, acts against nature are not. Drilling through 5,000 feet of water and then 13,000 feet of rock are acts of greed, arrogance and unfounded confidence in the superiority of our technical knowledge and equipment. There is nowhere else to point the fingers than ourselves. Our blind love of oil, which Dana Lyons sings about in “Lubricate the Red, White and Blue” feeds 97% of our cars, trucks and plains. When we walk around in conveniently non-wrinkly, easy to wash polyester derived directly from oil, carry our oil derived shopping bags, we condone the price of the event like this one over and over again.

We have reached the state of the illusionary technical expertise which cannot answer the most basic question: “How do you reverse it back to the way things were?” We are so smart combining the chains of polymers but once synthesized, we don’t know how to degrade them. We can split an atom but we have never figured it out how to put it back together. We feed our children Genetically Modified foods, ignoring all the warnings. We give the free ticket to mad scientists to combine plant DNA with fish DNA, spike our soy, corn, wheat, sugar with cancer producing insecticide molecules and most of the time don’t even know it and don’t ask. There is no one on earth able to reverse the loss of 96% of our soy, large percentage of cotton and corn to GMO crops. Most of us don’t even know that we are not eating food anymore, we are eating the largest science experiment in history of humanity, only called “food”. Our grandchildren will tell us if we gambled right. In a meantime, we observe with astonishment the rising of illnesses, “food” intolerances, rash and eczema where our chemical laden clothes touch the skin. Just like when Chernobyl blows up, when drilling rig explodes, we look with surprise at damage created, saddened and always clueless how to reverse it.

At this point there are no perfect solutions, only compromises but first, it is crucial to recover our lost reverence to nature, our respect for natural resources. We need these for thousands more years. Maybe we should not drill the hole if we don’t know how to plug it. A petroleum engineer involved in the spill supposedly said in a radio interview “It just seems like every now and then, you can’t win against Mother Nature.” Correction – you can never win against the Mother Nature. That’s not the direction we want to keep going.

Please, keep doing your part in taking steps, no matter how small or challenging they might be in supporting the eco-friendly efforts and groups which try hard to not work against Mother Nature. We are in it together.

Do you remember the 70’s  - with leaded gas cars, polluted skies, and when rivers caught fire?  Look how far we have come! When Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson created this movement in 1970, 20 million Americans joined the protest. Today Earth Day Network expects 1.5 billion people to be part of global events and programs.

The green community of Snohomish invites you to join us in celebrating Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary. On Thursday April 22nd, 1 pm – 6 pm, local green businesses, farmers, and organizations will display their products and services in KlaHaYa Park, right off historic First Street by the Snohomish River. Various businesses along First Street will also be participating.

Recycling Queen Karen of Snohomish Farmers Market, Full Circle Farm, Flying Tomato and Caruso Farm will present their green ways and eco-friendly methods. Cedar Grove Compost will share secrets of successful composting and Earth Wise Excavation explains how earth work can be done sustainably with care for the environment. Natural Clothing Company will display organic clothing of hemp, organic cotton and other natural fibers, along with information why are organic textiles important for you and even better for the planet! The Boys and Girls Club will display art made from recycled materials. Sip organic coffee from Java Inn while sampling certified organic skincare products from NYR Organic Skincare. Rowdy Rascals Toy Store will demonstrate which toys are safe for your youngsters. Come and meet Chris from Wolf College as he describes his fascinating camps and classes on survival skills and his fascinating camps and classes on surviving in the mountains, wild cooking and herbology and more. SongCroft is a self sufficiency school and a family farm run by Marilene Richardson, who is not only Master Gardner, Certified Permaculture Designer but also an originator of Foundation for Sustainable Community. Check out www.NaturalClothing.com/Earth_Day for a other exhibitors, like Esoterica Candles – all natural soy wax candles, hand-crafted locally.

Each exhibitor will answer the question: how is your business/organization sustainable? The answers might be as varied as the issue. Is it organic? Energy efficient? Recyclable? Reusable? Compostable? Helpful to future generations? You can ponder on that and your own definition at Grilla Bites Cafe, which offers delicious food with lots of organic choices and non-gluten or non –diary options. Grilla Bites composts its trash, serves as a pick up place for the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and is a great gathering spot for the community. Join us there after the event for great food at a special Earth Day discount and appropriately enough – Dirt Cake! Also, a showing of the 20 min video by Annie Leonard “The Story of Stuff”, will be a great finale for an amazing day!

Thursday’s Earth Day event is sponsored by Natural Clothing Company and Grilla Bites Café with help from City of Snohomish and Historic Downtown Snohomish.

Don’t forget to join us on Saturday, April 24th, 9 am to 4 pm – for the City of Snohomish Spring Clean-Up. Join us at the Boys and Girls Club, 402 Second Street, for sign up and assignments. Bring gloves, rakes and enjoy a day of fun and community spirit helping to make the city more beautiful. This yearly event is sponsored by City of Snohomish, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club and the Snohomish Parks Foundation. There will be lunch served by the Snohomish Lions Club. The Household Clean-Up is held at the City shop yard, 1801 First St where City of Snohomish residents can dispose of household waste items.

There might be no uniform definition of “sustainable” but it is simple to recognize when one really cares about their environment. Our community certainly does –come and see!

The best part of our green business, Natural Clothing Company, are people we meet. Anne from San Francisco introduced us to the project building a new medical center at the base of the Himalayas between Nepal and India. When our family moved away from Seattle few years ago, our son was in a serious health condition. We measured prospective homes in terms of how long would it take us to get him to the Children’s Hospital in emergency. For kids in Jambange a trip to medical help might be impossible right now.

Here is what Anne says: “As a yoga instructor, and customer of the natural clothing company I support the Jambange Project. We are raising funds to build a medical center at the village, and we hope to see in the future the village becoming sustainable by itself. Donating a contribution to the Jambange Project will help all the people at the village to get medical care. You can contact OmGuru for donations. Check out the Jambange website! www.jambange.com . Thank You all!”

Another beautiful part of green movement is that Anne is French, I am Polish, you are who you are. The project is in Himalayas and there are no boundaries to compassion.