Guest post by grandmother and former nurse Linda Sones who sells organic cotton baby and children’s clothing and accessories, and natural, organic baby toiletries online at SonesUK. Her suppliers are all committed to various environmental and Fairtrade initiatives.

There’s plenty of hype about organic textiles and their sustainability these days, but are they as eco-friendly as we think they are? I decided to look behind the scenes to find out which textiles are truly sustainable and eco-friendly?

Global awareness of the real price of clothing is growing and there are increasing numbers of cases of people experiencing health problems such as rashes, allergies, respiratory and concentration problems due to chemical sensitivities. Many have found organic clothing to be helpful in reducing exposure to the vast amount of toxic chemicals we are unknowingly exposed to on a daily basis.

Cotton is a wonderful fibre for making clothes, but it is now recognized that conventionally grown cotton causes great harm both to the environment and to cotton industry workers. Its extensive use of pesticides and insecticides can cause ill-health to people that come into contact with the chemicals and widespread pollution by soaking into water tables. Organic cotton is grown without chemicals and therefore does no harm to either environment or workers, but it is more labour intensive and furthermore fields must be free of chemicals for three years before the crop can be certified organic. There have been huge global increases in the demand for organic cotton and the problem now facing farmers is producing enough to meet the demand. LaRhea Pepper of Organic Exchange says, “In order to encourage long term economically sustainable sources of organic fibre we need to be willing to discuss and implement models that acknowledge the value of the product from the farm gate and continuing right down the supply chain.”
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Our latest product review (see Eco review for more) is of some great organic t-shirts that my husband and I have been trying out over the past couple of months. They’re from Ban T-shirts, are 100% organic cotton, and have some really cool environmental messages on them, I’m sure you’ll agree. We’ve been wearing them, washing them, wearing them again, and they’re still looking as good as new, so great quality.

Ban T-shirts are all political (not all environmental, but definitely of the progressive persuasion), all made in the USA and sweat shop free.

You’ll definitely be a talking point in one of these tees.

Here are a few of the Ban T-shirts designs. More at their website.

In Ban T-shirts’ own words: “There’s more to politics than the same boring faces of rich old men and women you see on TV. Politics is about your life, the future of the planet, and the future of our children. Participate, voice your opinion, or someone else will do it for you. The mainstream media has no right to have a monopoly over your mind. You may not have a media empire but you can still get your message across on political T-shirts, posters and any other way you can think of. A good slogan on a t-shirt will send a powerful message to passers-by. Our t-shirt slogans are the soundbites to counteract the stagnant stalemate of the mainstream media.”