“Degradable natural fibres have an advantage over synthetics when it comes to the environment. Having said that, there are developments in the pipeline to aid the environmental sustainability of synthetics,” the head of a full service broking firm tells fibre2fashion.
Nick Hahn, founder of Hahn International Limited (HIL), a small, specialist firm focusing on natural fibre textiles with emphasis on value added branding and marketing and sales was replying to a question on environmental sustainability of manmade fibre (MMF) made textiles versus those from natural fibres.
When quizzed if manmade fibres pose a threat to natural fibre textiles, he says, “I do not think synthetics threaten natural fibres. On the contrary, they enhance each other with unique characteristics. Synthetics help naturals achieve wrinkle-resistance and make them stronger and more durable.
“While natural fibres enhance the aesthetics of synthetics making them softer, more luxurious and enhancing appearance and the property of breathability in natural fibres help synthetics to become more comfortable to wear.”
Giving his opinion in growth of natural fibres and the problems that plague it, Nick informs, “Cotton, like other farm-bred fibres like wool, cashmere, alpaca, silk, vicuna, and coir, has performance characteristics that have never been duplicated by synthetics.
“At best, they have only been imitated. I expect all textile fibres to expand with increases in world population and growth of the middle class with disposable incomes. However, in case of natural fibres, production is impacted by weather and price.
“Natural fibres are traded on commodity markets and prices fluctuate according to the laws of supply and demand and these fluctuations cause problems for spinning mills when they forecast their costs.”
According to Nick, the US industry suffered a major meltdown with most of its mills closing their doors in the 80's and 90's due to apparel production moving off-shore to low wage countries in Asia, Latin America and more recently, sub-Saharan Africa.
“However, we are seeing some recovery at the high end of the market but I don't see mass produced commodity products being made in the USA in the foreseeable future,” he observes. (AR)
