Frank frankdotlogullo@comcastperiodnet wrote in
:

Basically you have to look at the entire life cycle of the
material from
cradle to grave and include environmental needs. I have
not seen a
study on hemp but recall such a comparison of cotton versus
polyester.

i agree that polyesters vs cotton may very well be more
enviromentally sound. cotton is not an eviromentally friendly
crop in any way. it needs irrigation & heavy schedules of
fertilizer, pesticides & herbicides. there are 'greener'
strains of cotton, but most of them are colored & have shorter
staple length, so not as attractive to large mills.
OTOH, polyester gives me hives & if i dry it in a dryer, the
smell makes me ill, & unfortunately that includes fabrics with
a little as 10% poly.

Most people think that natural fibers are more
environmentally friendly but if you farm, you know that a
lot of energy goes into plowing, planting, growing and
harvesting. The natural materials are harder to process as
they contain debris like seeds and dirt that must be
separated.

i see you don't know bast fiber prep then. unlike cotton,
seeds & dirt aren't an issue.
flax (linen) is a bit pickier about weeding than hemp, which
*is* a weed & will crowd out other weeds. both need to be
retted (soaked in water to break down the softer tissues),
then spun. hand retting is a bit labor intensive, but we've
had big mills that can do it easily for several centuries now.
prior to the invention of an improved mechanical cotton gin in
1792, cotton was barely a viable crop in the US. most cloth at
that time was linen, hemp or wool, maybe silk if you were
quite wealthy.

I was also familiar with acetate and rayon
fibers from cellulose, often cotton waste, but these were
phased out by industry largely due to difficult, messy
processes requiring a lot of costly pollution control.

i need to research how China manufactures bamboo fiber. it's
touted as 'earth friendly', and renewable... but it's still a
cellulose fiber & those are pretty polluting.

Hemp probably has a niche in the market but I doubt it
would ever be a growing one.

it will never have a growing market as long as the pulp &
chemical company lobbies are against it. the marijuana
hysteria was started by Hearst because hemp was competing with
his wood pulp. hemp paper was cheaper to produce, more durable
& didn't yellow... it was cutting into his profits. the
chemical giants know hemp farmers don't need to buy any of
their products, so they don't want any cropland devoted to it.
it's all about money.


lee
--
Last night while sitting in my chair
I pinged a host that wasn't there
It wasn't there again today
The host resolved to NSA.