these morons think wool is worse for the environment than synthetic fibres!

[C_T_Russell]

Unbelievable, we heard the same crap about paper bags vs plastic bags!
Now all the shops have switched to paper.
Good way to keep the oil industry going.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/1...synthetics

[harm_less]

Unbelievable, we heard the same crap about paper bags vs plastic bags!
Now all the shops have switched to paper.
Good way to keep the oil industry going.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/1...synthetics

Just an example of how big business spin the numbers to make a case for petroleum based products. Unfortunately a similar argument is being used to promote hydrogen as an energy source, again driven by the petroleum industry, and Councils and governments are being sucked into this falacy.

[nzoomed]

Microplastics is something else that is totally being overlooked in this article too.
There has been quite a lot of talk recently about microplastics from fabrics, and studies suggesting all our lungs contain at least some microplastics.
I was quite oblivious to it until we got a new heatpump drier with a fancy lint filter and you can clearly see the fibres collected, its amazing how many actually come off during a cycle.
I have to clean this thing out after every cycle, makes me wonder where it all went with my old drier, I hardly had to clean out the filter on that one.
Its an issue wastewater treatment plants are trying to address too, as alot of this ends up in the ocean and is hard to remove.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Every material we use that has gone through a complex manufacturing process has a serious downside. Paper has a huge environmental foot print, with its energy, water, and labour consumption. Add chemicals, heat, and transport and that product has come a long way from its origins in the ancient world. But no one who uses paper wants to go back to that genuinely clean green paper making process, and even if we could the market for it is so huge that process would never satisfy demand.

Same with wool. Those of us with access to a flock of sheep might be able to sling a sheepskin over our shoulders come winter, or gather wild wool tufts to spin and weave to make a rough blanket, but the rest of humanities billions would have to find some other way to keep the weather off our backs.

The problem is not the product, but the market. We simply have too many people with needs and wants and demands to satisfy. And until we don't the planet will continue to be the resource we all depend on.

Until it isn't.

[Lilith7]

Every material we use that has gone through a complex manufacturing process has a serious downside. Paper has a huge environmental foot print, with its energy, water, and labour consumption. Add chemicals, heat, and transport and that product has come a long way from its origins in the ancient world. But no one who uses paper wants to go back to that genuinely clean green paper making process, and even if we could the market for it is so huge that process would never satisfy demand.

Same with wool. Those of us with access to a flock of sheep might be able to  sling a sheepskin over our shoulders come winter, or gather wild wool tufts to spin and weave to make a rough blanket, but the rest of humanities billions would have to find some other way to keep the weather off our backs.

The problem is not the product, but the market. We simply have too many people with needs and wants and demands to satisfy. And until we don't the planet will continue to be the resource we all depend on.

Until it isn't.

Which reminds me of something I came across earlier:



“The fact is that no species has ever had such wholesale control over everything on earth, living or dead, as we now have. That lays upon us, whether we like it or not, awesome responsibility. In our hands now lies not only our own future but that of all other living creatures with whom we share the earth.”
David Attenborough

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Unless you understand the effect of the paper industry on the environment...

[SueDonim]

We've been questioning the advice to put paper in the home compost bin. Everything you read on how to make compost includes adding paper. BUT, bleaching is part of the paper-making process, so even with "unbleached" papers*, there is still some and while its disposal may be less harmful than plastic, I wonder if the antibacterial effect of the bleaching has a detrimental impact on compost. For a long time I put paper into the compost bin, but over a period of years our compost seemed to deteriorate and we stopped doing it. No paper. And over the last year the compost has got better.

In the paper v. plastic argument, I still think paper is better because at least it doesn't end up as microplastic throughout the environment. I did read an article recently about soil fungi, and it included a snippet that several fungi have been discovered to "eat" at least some plastics. Hopefully they can eventually be put into wide use, and hopefully won't themselves have other harmful flow on effects. Maybe they will at least eat up the supposedly "home compostable" plastic the supermarkets pat themselves on the back for giving us. That doesn't break down properly in the compost and the plastic is so horrible it can't be used for anything else.

*I checked a pack of recycled paper serviettes and it said "not re-bleached". So recycled paper, which was bleached in the original manufacture. So really, the only thing we can (and should) do is reduce the amount of paper and plastic we use and try to reduce/re-use the packaging we get when we buy stuff. Sometimes easy to do, often not.

Back to the original post - I think wool is vastly superior on several levels, but not all. Part of the problem is the processing after it comes off the sheep. And there are practicality issues for the end products. Polyesters are not as benign as we thought, but you really can't beat the ability to repeatedly machine wash everyday clothes.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

We've been questioning the advice to put paper in the home compost bin. Everything you read on how to make compost includes adding paper. BUT, bleaching is part of the paper-making process, so even with "unbleached" papers*, there is still some and while its disposal may be less harmful than plastic, I wonder if the antibacterial effect of the bleaching has a detrimental impact on compost. For a long time I put paper into the compost bin, but over a period of years our compost seemed to deteriorate and we stopped doing it. No paper. And over the last year the compost has got better.

In the paper v. plastic argument, I still think paper is better because at least it doesn't end up as microplastic throughout the environment. I did read an article recently about soil fungi, and it included a snippet that several fungi have been discovered to "eat" at least some plastics. Hopefully they can eventually be put into wide use, and hopefully won't themselves have other harmful flow on effects. Maybe they will at least eat up the supposedly "home compostable" plastic the supermarkets pat themselves on the back for giving us. That doesn't break down properly in the compost and the plastic is so horrible it can't be used for anything else.

*I checked a pack of recycled paper serviettes and it said "not re-bleached". So recycled paper, which was bleached in the original manufacture. So really, the only thing we can (and should) do is reduce the amount of paper and plastic we use and try to reduce/re-use the packaging we get when we buy stuff. Sometimes easy to do, often not.

Back to the original post - I think wool is vastly superior on several levels, but not all. Part of the problem is the processing after it comes off the sheep. And there are practicality issues for the end products. Polyesters are not as benign as we thought, but you really can't beat the ability to repeatedly machine wash everyday clothes.

If humanity was a small population of creatures instead of the massive infestation it is, we wouldn't have any of these issues. The products aren't the problem. People are the problem.

[C_T_Russell]

If humanity was a small population of creatures instead of the massive infestation it is, we wouldn't have any of these issues. The products aren't the problem. People are the problem.

Isn't that the whole reason for covid?
The engineered virus failed to cull much of the world's population, and neither has the vaccine (so far) all part of the global elite to reset things.
As sad as it is, it's reality that there are far too many humans on the planet,  but its a very cruel way with the attempts made to depopulate the planet.
Maybe it sounds too much like a conspiracy theory, but I smell a rat.