Which is more environmentally friendly – synthetic or natural fabrics?
Well the reality is that consumption of things damages the environment. Cotton is a natural fibre, but requires a lot of water, and uses a lot of polluting pesticides to grow. So cotton might be natural but it is hard environmentally neutral. Synthetic fibres are made from oil. But compared with say buring oil in cars the amount used is much less. Other natural fibres have other issues. Wool, for example, involves the use of sheep. Sheep eat grain that we could eat directly. Environmental issues are very complicated, I think the simple answer is not to state one is better than the other in a simple manner, but to list the impacts of certain natural fibres, the 3 main ones are cotton, silk and wool.
