Up, Up and Away
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Trusted Clothes (Unpublished)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2016
First things first – as always super-duper quick, here’s a crash paragraph in natural fibres:
Natural fibres differ from synthetic or man-made fibres, can be plant or animal fibres, with plant fibres being made of complicated sugar arrangements called cellulose (which enzymes have a hard time breaking down because of their arrangement) and animal fibres being made of amino acids for proteins, with the cellulose as simple long chains of sugar molecules, and the plant cells as eukaryotic or non-prokaryotic, but both animal and plant fibres can be composted whilst synthetic or man-made fibres cannot decompose (There!).[i],[ii] ,[iii],[iv],[v],[vi] ,[vii] ,[viii] ,[ix],[x] ,[xi],[xii],[xiii],[xiv],[xv]
Synthetic fibre production continues to increase in contrast with the natural fibre industry.[xvi] What does this mean for the present and the future? What’s its history? Here’s a fantastic summarization of much of the information about its historical context and their demand in the international marketplace of fibre goods – natural vs. man-made, but it’s a bit dense and with a note on the origination of synthetic fibres (who am I to speak, though?):
artificial silk using cellulosics by De Chardonnet in France in 1892. Regrettably the business declared bankruptcy in 1894! However, not to be discouraged, the industry continued to develop other cellulosics and acetates until the arrival of nylon, which was discovered by Wallace Carothers at DuPont in the 1930s. His discovery brought the first truly MMF to the market. Initial applications including military uses during World War II and replacing silk in women’s hosiery. Nylon was followed by the ICI development of polyester, discovered in the early 1940s by two British scientists working for Calico Printers.
From these early beginnings the MMF industry was born, and through continuous development it recorded demand in 2014 of 55.2 million tons (122 billion pounds) of synthetic fibre, in addition to man-made cellulosic fibre demand of 5.2 million tons. The natural fibre industry, including cotton and wool, has a demand of 25.4 million tons.[xvii]
Chardonnet trained under Louis Pasteur as a civil engineer and began the development of artificial fibres in 1878, and six years later in 1884 got a patent on a fibre.[xviii],[xix] But wait, there’s more! In the Paris Exposition, in 1889, he presented the rayon productions to the public for the very first time; after which, he began to bring about the first factory for the first commercial factory, “Société de la Soie de Chardonnet (“Society of the Silk of Chardonnet”) in Besançon,”for the world’s first commercial synthetic or man-made fibre called Chardonnet silk.[xx]
So, that’s the time it started and was then mass produced for public consumption, and now we’re here with the issues of environmental degradation and pollution, only thirteen years from 1878 to 1891, literally. As noted, the business declared bankruptcy in 1894, but mass industry comes out of our mass demands (or our ancestors) and alternatives were discovered and made by them.
Anyway, that’s a far cry from the present. Why is it a far cry from the present? Because the industry has changed and gone from Chardonnet silk to cellulosic acetates, to nylon, and even polyester, and the polyesters are becoming dominant (did you see the close-up of the chart at the outset?), that is, synthetic fibres are dominant.[xxi],[xxii],[xxiii],[xxiv] Take, for instance, the latter parts of the description about the 2014 sales in the millions of tons.
That’s 55.2 million tons of synthetic fibre were sold compared to 25.4 million tons of natural fibre, which comes out to 55.2/25.4 or a synthetic or man-made fibre sales to natural fibres sales ratio of 2.2:1. That’s a lot, and that’s even the low number because if you take into account the other materials such as the man-made cellulosics and add that number to the synthetic fibres, then the ratio’s representative disparity is even higher.
So, take, for example, once again, the 55.2 million tons of material and add that to the 5.2 million tons from the man-made cellulosics. So that’s 55.2 plus 5.2 and comes to a sum of 60.4 million tons, which becomes 60.4 million tons of synthetic or man-made fibres to 25.4 million tons of natural fibre, or 2.4:1. That’s pretty amazing, and it’s likely greater at this point in time.
The article continues to say that the polyester synthetic fibre is the main one “, but nylon, the oldest MMF, still plays an important role in the fibre business with 4 million tons of global production in 2014”; and thinking about it further, China represents about “69 percent” of the global polyester production and, therefore, the greatest demand is for polyester, the greatest production is in China, and the most fibres being produced are synthetic or man-made ones with an enormous weighting towards polyester, and so the Chinese workers are producing the most synthetic fibres in the world.[xxv] That means the centre of the non-natural (though everything is ‘natural,’ technically) fibres is in one country, and it’s going up and up in both demand, and thus production.
And so polyester is the issue, but it’s pretty close to it, and the nature of the synthetic production line is continuing forward. As of 2014, it was at a 2.2 to 2.4:1 ratio between synthetic or man-made fibres or natural fibres. Also, an issue going forward, but these do need some more consideration for the 2015 and 2016 years going forward.
We cannot predict with utter certainty, but can see the centralization of much of the world’s production in the synthetic or man-made fibres from one country, China, and the, though disparate, surprisingly close nature of the two types of fibres in sales, at least on a gross analysis. Unfortunately, the utilitarian attitudinal stances towards production and consumption have gone for the narrow utilitarian analysis with the value in the short-term pleasure and ease of synthetic fibres via polyester (mainly) – and like those old corny cartoons gone up, up and away.
[i] natural fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[ii] man-made fibre. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[iii] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Animal Fibres.
[iv] Wild Fibres. (2016, February 15). Plant Fibres.
[v] Nutrient Review. (2016). Cellulose.
[vi] National Institutes of Health: U.S. Library of Medicine. (2016, April 5). Amino Acids.
[vii] National Institutes of Health: U.S. Library of Medicine. (2016, April 5). What are proteins and what do they do?.
[viii] Senese, F. (2015, August 17). What is cellulose?.
[ix] sugar. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica..
[x] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.
[xi] eukaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xii] prokaryote. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xiii] Bailey, R. (2016, April 25). Plant Cells.
[xiv] enzyme. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xv] University of Illinois Board of Trustees. (2016). The Science of Composting
[xvi] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.
[xvii] Ibid.
[xviii] Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet (2016) states:
Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet, (born May 1, 1839, Besançon, France—died March 12, 1924, Paris) French chemist and industrialist who first developed and manufactured rayon.
Trained as a civil engineer after completing scientific studies under Louis Pasteur, Chardonnet began to develop an artificial fibre in 1878. Obtaining a patent in 1884 on a fibre produced by extruding a solution of cellulose nitrate through fine glass capillaries, he worked for several years on the problem of reducing the flammability of the new substance. At the Paris Exposition of 1889 he showed rayon products to the public for the first time. Soon afterward he opened a factory, Société de la Soie de Chardonnet (“Society of the Silk of Chardonnet”) in Besançon, which in 1891 began to produce the world’s first commercially made synthetic fibre, sometimes called Chardonnet silk to distinguish it from other forms of rayon.
Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xix] Louis Pasteur. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xx] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.
[xxi] Ibid.
[xxii] cellulose acetate. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xxiii] Nylon (2016) states:
Nylon is a polymer—a plastic with super-long, heavy molecules built up of short, endlessly repeating sections of atoms, just like a heavy metal chain is made of ever-repeating links. Nylon is not actually one, single substance but the name given to a whole family of very similar materials called polyamides.
Woodford, C. (2015, November 12). Nylon.
[xxiv] Polyester (2016) states:
Polyester, a class of synthetic polymers built up from multiple chemical repeating units linked together by ester (CO-O) groups. Polyesters display a wide array of properties and practical applications. Permanent-press fabrics, disposable soft-drink bottles, compact discs, rubber tires, and enamel paints represent only a few of the products made from this group.
Polyesters most commonly are prepared from a condensation reaction between an organic alcohol (containing hydroxyl [OH] groups) and a carboxylic acid (containing carboxyl [COOH] groups).
polyester. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.
[xxv] Textile Fibre Industry. (2015, February 3). Man-Made Fibres Continue To Grow.
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