However, GOTS isn't perfect. And it isn't alone in its imperfection. EURA organic is a great standard that we love as well, but something labelled EURA organic doesn't have to be grown using soil management techniques. A farm that uses regenerative and biodynamic techniques to manage and increase top soil receives the same EURA label as does a farm that uses more traditional farming techniques where top soil erodes each year into local waterways (for more about this, check out @kisstheground).

What I'm trying to say is that even though GOTS certification isn't perfect, that does not mean that it isn't a great standard and that you shouldn't rely on it (we rely on it constantly). GOTS certification is an important factor, but not the only factor, to be considered when looking for organic clothing. Here are some other factors: 

1. DYES

GOTS certification prohibits the use of azo and other conventional dyes which are known to release carcinogenic compounds. GOTS also prohibits dyes that are known to cause other health risks, like birth defects or brain damage, or are harmful to the environment (including dyes toxic to aquatic life, terrestrial vertebrates or that negatively impact the ozone layer).

However, GOTS certification does not prohibit all synthetic dyes. In fact, the vast majority of dyes certified under GOTS are synthetically derived from petroleum. These synthetic dyes are generally termed low impact dyes, because they have a lower negative impact on the environment that conventional dyes. But a lower impact doesn't mean a positive impact, and these dyes are far from perfect. Certain toxic chemicals are still allowed under GOTS for certain dye colors, mainly because without these chemicals the dyes won't work.  These toxic chemicals include heavy metals for blue, green and turquoise dyes and adsorbable organic halides (known as AOX) for yellow, green and violet pigments. About 50% of "low-impact" dyes do not bind to fabric during dyeing, and end up as wastewater that can run-off into our waterways.

Also, GOTS doesn't even mention the fact that to create a synthetic dye from crude oil requires a ton of resources, water and energy. When you think about how much energy and work it must take to turn something that looks like oily tar into bright magenta, it's surprising that these dyes are allowed at all.

As you can probably tell, I'm not a fan of "low impact" dyes, so we don't use them at Sustain. Instead, Sustain uses natural plant dyes. Natural dyes originate from plants and, in some cases, insects -- not from crude oil. The plant dyes Sustain uses are all-natural, safe and non-toxic, both for humans and the environment. Plus, because they are natural, our "wastewater" is just plant matter plus water that can be reused to water new dye crops. Sustain's plant dyes are also certified under GOTS because they do not contain toxic chemicals and do not originate form threatened species.

2. TREATMENTS

Under GOTS, while the most harmful and toxic chemical treatments are prohibited (like formaldehyde, biocides, ammonia, aromatic solvents, benzenes, toxic flame retardants, among many others), certain chemical treatments are still permitted. For example, synthetic optical brighteners and fabric softeners are still allowed, as are chlorine and black sulphur bleaches in specific cases involving fabrics with synthetic fibers. Like synthetic dyes, these chemicals take a lot of resources and energy to produce from oil and create additional wastewater.

Sustain specifically avoids chemical treatments, including optical brighteners and synthetic fabric softeners in all of its products.

3. REGENERATIVE FARMING

Like EURA certification, there are no requirements under GOTS requiring that the growing of cotton, linen, hemp or any other natural fiber used in textiles, be grown using regenerative methods. While this is a fairly new concept in the textile industry, there are companies that are paving the way in this area.

One such company is Organic Cotton Colours (OCC). OCC uses agro-regenerative farming practices that naturally enrich the soil and translate into a positive impact on the environment. Instead of creating top soil run-off during its organic cotton farming, OCC's regenerative practices increase and enrich the soil, preventing runoff and creating a healthier ecosystem that creates less pollution and helps to fix carbon in the soil. Sustain's the colorgrown cotton fabric used by Sustain in its products, like its women's briefs and bras and kid's leggings, are from OCC.

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I hope this information is helpful when it comes time to purchase new textiles or clothing. If you have any questions or follow-up, please comment below!

Written by Kat, Founder of Sustain

Sources:

Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS), Version 6.0, Effective March 1, 2021

Organic Cotton Colours, OCCGuarantee

1. Receiving the Clothes

All our clothing is locally manufactured by an ethical and high quality manufacturer in Los Angeles. We manufacture all our pieces using the highest quality materials, including GOTS-certified organic fabrics that are sewn together using GOTS-certified organic sewing threads. Even the drawstrings for our pj shorts are organic cotton and the elastic used in the waistband is GOTS-certified organic cotton and natural rubber. We are seriously Type-A about eco-friendly and ethical materials, so you don't have to be.

2. Washing

Before we can dye our organic clothes, we have to wash them.  Washing removes some of the natural oils and waxes in fabrics that can cause the dye to attach unevenly. We use natural plant-based soaps and minerals to wash our clothes, and reuse the wash water whenever possible.

3. Prepping the Dyes

Making natural dyes is in many cases similar to making tea. Our lavender, chamomile and rose dye for our pjs is made by using organic flowers that are steeped in water to extract the dye. Then we add in a ground fruit called myrobalan (a fruit commonly used in Tibetan medicine) to help the dye color attach to the organic cotton fabric. It smells absolutely wonderful. (You don't even want to know what typical dye factories smell like - it sure ain't roses).

4. Dyeing the PJs

Our clothes are then added to a dye bath, where they steep, sometimes for hours. Some of our clothes require multiple dye baths, like our pjs, which are first dyed yellow in the flower bath and then dyed blue in our organic indigo vat (green is actually one of the hardest colors to make naturally - surprising, right?). To conserve water, we reuse the dye bath water for irrigation, though for our indigo vat we just keep it around. Natural indigo vats can last up to a year with some TLC.

5. Beautiful Plant dyed Apparel

So that's it. Our process is as clean as we can make it. We are proud of our products and hope to inspire an industry fraught with chemicals harmful to ourselves, the textile workers and our environment, to clean up their act. We are working to pave the way to a cleaner industry, and cannot truly express how thankful we are to all those who support us in making this a reality.

Considering the scale, it’s probably not surprising that the fashion industry is a major polluter. As a whole, the industry is responsible for 1.26 billion tons of greenhouse emissions every year. That’s a full 10% of the world's global carbon emissions!³ The majority of those emissions are from making petroleum-based fabrics (polyester, nylon, spandex, etc.) and from the production and use of chemical dyes, which are made from petroleum and coal tar.

At Sustain, our clothing is free of petroleum – it’s nowhere to be found in either our dyes or our fabrics. Nothing we sell is grown using petroleum-based fertilizers or pesticides and our dyes are derived from plants instead of oil. In fact, unlike a lot of conventional clothing, our organic fabrics our natural dyes are beneficial to the environment. The plants we grow for our natural fibers and dyes actually remove carbon during their growth, meaning everything we sell is either carbon neutral or climate beneficial. Sustain strives to be a net positive for the environment, so we do everything we can to reverse the cause of global warming while still selling you high quality, well-made clothing at affordable prices.

¹"Global Textile Dyes Market Report 2018 Forecast to 2022 - Key Players are Archroma, Huntsman, Kiri Industries, Lanxess, and Zhejiang Longsheng Group - ResearchAndMarkets.com," Dublin BusinessWire, April 11, 2018.

²"Global Textile Colourants Market to Reach 6,246 Thousand Tonnes in 2017,"  Future Market Insights' Press Release, May 11, 2016.

³"Fashion industry creates more carbon emissions than some airlines," New York Post, November 30, 2017; "Making Climate Change Fashionable - The Garment Industry Takes On Global Warming," Forbes, Dec 3, 2015.

Now consider this: azo dyes, which account for about 60-70% of all clothing dyes, have been found to cause cancer.² Some are even banned in the EU for this reason. (That’s, unfortunately, not so in the US, where they are still allowed.)

There are other problematic things in our clothing as well. Trace amounts of heavy metals, some above what are considered the abiding carcinogenic safety limits, have also been found in conventional clothing.³ In fact, even "eco-friendly" "low impact" dyes have been found to cause skin problems, and the long-term effects of these newer dyes have not yet been studied.¹

And dyes aren’t the only problem. 60-70% of fabrics are made from plastic (polyester, spandex, acrylic), which, as we know from plastic water bottles, leaches chemicals when it gets hot.⁴

Others are made from food or food scraps such as pomegranate peels, avocado skins, and rhubarb leaves – things that are safe to wear and eat.

And that doesn’t even touch upon our ayurvedic collection, which is dyed with over a dozen medicinal herbs and plants including turmeric (a powerful anti-inflammatory), aloe, and peppermint. Clinical trials at the Government Ayurveda College in Thiruvananthapuram show that clothing dyed with these medicinal herbs has beneficial health effects, improving the immune responses of the wearer. That means our natural dyes are not just solving a problem – they’re providing a benefit to your health.

¹"In vitro percutaneous absorption of model compounds glyphosate and malathion from cotton fabric into and through human skin," Food Chem Toxicol., Aug. 1996, Vol. 34(8), p.731-5.

²"Azo dyes in clothing textiles can be cleaved into a series of mutagenic aromatic amines which are not regulated yet," Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, Aug. 2017, Vol. 88, p. 214-226.

³ "Human exposure to trace elements through the skin by direct contact with clothing: Risk assessment," Environ. Res., July 2015, Vol. 140, p. 308-16.

⁴"Textile Dye dermatitis," J. Am. Acad. Dermatol., Apr. 1995, Vol. 32(4), p. 631-9;"Allergic contact dermatitis associated with reactive dyes in a dark garment: a case report," Contact Dermatitis, Sep. 2005, Vol. 53(3), p. 150-4.

⁵"Could Your Clothes be Damaging Your Health?" Becky Plotner, The Weston A. Price Foundation, Nov. 21, 2016.

The problem is compounded by the fact that textile factories in foreign countries often have few if any workplace safety regulations, so many workers do not wear protective gloves or even shoes in high chemical areas, and some even eat lunch in the middle of polluted factories.² Since most textile demand is in Western countries and most dye factories are in poorer parts of China, Bangladesh and India, our desire for fast fashion is literally poisoning the already impoverished. That doesn’t mean, however, that textile workers in the U.S. don’t face risks too. Even in nations with stricter safety regulations, workers who deal with chemical dyeing face an elevated risk of cancer.³

At Sustain, we want no part in this cycle of destruction. Our dyes are 100% natural, non-toxic, and made from plants and insects. After all, it’s much easier to provide safe conditions from workers when they are dyeing with plants like marigold as opposed to compounds we can’t pronounce the names of. Additionally, dyeing with natural ingredients protects our water – our "waste" water is “polluted” with residual plant nutrients and vitamins, so it’s actually beneficial for plants or irrigation downstream. That’s much better than toxic sludge, wouldn’t you say?

¹ “Toxic Sludge Irrigating Fields for 20 Years,” The Tribune (April 7, 2009).

²“River Blue,” documentary film, (2016).

³"Occupational bladder cancer in textile dyeing and printing workers: six cases and their significance for screening programs,"  J. Occup Med., Vol. 32(9), pgs. 887-90 (Sept. 1990).

Question 1. Do natural dyes fade?

There are two main factors that impact the longevity of natural dyes: the dye plants used and how the garment is cared for. Fortunately, we have the first part covered, and the second is very easy to do.

Sustain uses the best natural dyes. With the ability to reach cultures and peoples all over the world, we have access to the best natural dyes across the globe, so we get to chose the strongest dyes that last the longest. Dyes such as indigo, madder, and plants high in tannins like oak, are known for their colorfastness (i.e., their ability to maintain their color). We specifically use dyes known to last a long time, so they can easily survive through multiple washings, sun exposure, etc. If you have ever been to a museum and seen colored articles from before 1860 (when synthetic dyes were invented), you would see first hand how long natural dyes can last. We use these exact same natural dyes.

With this, naturally-dyed clothing can live a long and colorful life, without harming our environment (or skin). From an environmental perspective, synthetic dyes actually last too long, taking about 50 years to degrade in nature¹, and during that time they can have toxic and harmful effects on the surrounding environment. Natural dyes, on the other hand, will naturally biodegrade in months in the natural microbial environment of a compost. 

¹ "Dyes-Environmental Impact and Remediation," Luciana Pereira and Madalena Alves, Ch. 4 (2012).

Did you know that an estimated 17-20% of industrial water pollution is from chemical textile dyeing?¹ That’s a lot, though it’s no surprise when you know that up to 72 toxic chemicals can be released into the water during the chemical dyeing process, including heavy metals like lead, mercury and arsenic and toxins like formaldehyde and hydrochloric acid. What’s worse is that at least 30 of these chemicals can’t even be removed once they’ve been mixed into runoff.² That’s bad for waterways and aquatic life, not to mention the textile workers handling the chemicals.³

At Sustain, we care greatly about the earth and our water, so we strive to make sure that our dyes don’t pollute. How do we do that? Well every dye we use is 100% natural, most derived from plant leaves, flowers, and roots. We also use dyes derived from insects, but either way, the resulting runoff water is safe to use for irrigation. (It’s essentially tea!) In fact, in our Ayurvedic collection, our partners in India do just that and use their wastewater to irrigate their dye plants and crops. Plus, even though our dyes are safe, we try to limit our water use as much as possible. So even locally, a large percentage of the water used to dye our small-batch apparel is reused.

^1,3 "Dye Manufacturing," Pollution Prevent and Abatement Handbook, World Bank Group (1998).

^2,4"Textile dyeing industry an environmental hazard," Natural Science, Vol. 4, No. 1 (2012), Article ID:17027 (citing Hazardous Substance Research Centers/South and Southwest Outreach Program (2005) Environmental hazards of the textile industry. Environmental Update #24, Business Week).

Conventional petroleum-based dye are bad for the environment.

Once you know that clothing dyes are derived from oil (yes, that includes the dyes used on other organic clothing), there are some obvious benefits of using plant dyes that jump out:

1. Reducing our dependence on oil - the clothing industry uses 70 million tons of oil each year to make synthetic dyes and fibers. Reducing our use of synthetic dyes could take a huge chunk out of that.

2. Reducing pollution - Converting oil into dyes creates a lot of pollution.  In fact, the fashion industry is the second largest polluter in the world, second only to oil itself. Converting oil into various colored dyes uses and creates hundreds of toxic chemicals that are put into our environment every year.  Plant dyes are, well, from plants. They are a normal and integral part of the environment. In fact, when plants grow they remove excess carbon and toxins from the air, helping reverse the effects of global climate change.

So, petroleum-based dyes are clearly bad for the environment, but did you know they are also bad for you?

The United States National Institutes of Health ran a study in 1996 finding that chemicals in clothing "can transfer from fabric into and through human skin to cause toxic effects," leading to "medical problems such as dermatitis and death." (See article here.) Death? Really? Calling death a "problem" seems like a bit of an understatement. And this study has been around since 1996? Why isn't anyone doing anything? - Sorry, that was my inner monologue from when I decided to create Sustain.

So, yes, the chemicals from your clothing can absorb into your skin. Now think about what you have been wearing your entire life. Polyester, acrylic, all sorts of petroleum-based fibers dyed with more chemicals made from petroleum. And you have been wearing, sleeping, and sweating in these clothes everyday of your life and almost every hour of your life. While no comprehensive studies have been done on the long-term effects of wearing these chemicals (at least that I have found), more and more studies are showing, like the National Institute of Health study above, that these chemicals have definite effects on your health, even in the short term (see, for example, here, here, here and for an article on increased rates of cancer among textile workers, see here).

So in comes plant dyes.

Plant dyes are actually not a new thing. In fact, many of the plant dyes Sustain uses have been used for thousands of years. That's right thousands. That's actually one of the best things about them. Natural plant dyes like indigo, madder root and fusticwood have been safely used for incredibly long periods of time without adverse effects. Petroleum-based dyes have been around for only about 50 years and there are tons of studies showing how harmful they are.

The other commonly used dyes Sustain used are edible. Dyes from plants like pomegranates, rhubarb (ummm, pie) and avocados are all foods found in the local grocery store.

And many of these plants have antioxidants and vitamins in them that are actually good for you. Here are a few of the benefits of the plants we use:

Pomegranate Peels

Pomegranate peels are rich in vitamins and antioxidants, even more than the juicy pomegranate seeds. The peels are anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and are consistently used in beauty products for maintaining healthy skin.

 

Oak Galls

Oak has natural antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce skin irritation.

 

Rhubarb

Rhubarb is high in vitamins A, C, E and K and various minerals that are good for you. Because rhubarb is high in antioxidants (like vitamin A), it has been used in skin care products for anti-aging. Rhubarb is also antimicrobial and has been used to fight skin infections.

 

Myrobalan

The dried fruits of myrobalan trees used for dyeing are commonly used in ayurvedic and traditional Tibetan medicine.  Because myrobalan is very high in antoxidants, it has been used to protect against various age and heart related diseases.

 

Avocado Skins & Seeds

The skins and in particular the seeds of avocados are incredibly high in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. The antioxidants in the seeds have been linked to reducing inflammatory conditions, and avocado seed extracts have been used topically to treat blemishes and relieve muscle and joint pain. The seeds also have insecticidal, fungicidal, and anti-microbial properties.

Wouldn't you rather be wearing clothing dyed with plants chalk full of goodness than clothing dyed with petroleum-based toxins?

For years I had issues with skin rashes. Nothing life threatening, but persistent and annoying. I would get little itchy bumps when I was doing nothing but going to work. I wasn't exposed to any toxic chemicals at work (or so I thought). I didn't work in a factory or with heavy metals. I worked at a desk in an office. And yet there they were, little itchy bumps - frustrating as ever.

I looked them up online and found something called eczema. Ends up a lot of people have it, something like up to 10% of adults. Crazy, right? At first I was happy to find the likely cause of my itchy little bumps, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized - nobody knows what causes eczema. It is just a generic term that is used to describe skin rashes. There are all sorts of anecdotal advice online about what causes it, and there are a ridiculous amount of creams and other "cures" out there that have mixed reviews at best. But there is no one culprit I could point my finger at and kick out of my life.

The one consistency that I found among eczema sufferers who had solved their rash problem was that something was irritating their skin, they just had to figure out what it was. Seemed pretty logical to me. And doable.

So I rounded up all the usual suspects: lotions, deodorants, soaps, detergents (this was a big one for my husband), l and slowly replaced them or did away with them altogether. The ones I replaced, I replaced with chemical-free versions. If I couldn't find a chemical-free version, I made my own. Body lotions were swapped out for my homemade olive and coconut oil sugar scrub, shower soap was replaced with an easy apple cider vinegar spray (ends up the high pH of soaps can be very irritating to your skin, and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar in 8 ounces of water has a pH much closer to the natural pH of your skin, while still being cleansing).

If you can't tell, I really got into DIY, so it made the process kind of fun.  It also just made me feel cleaner to know that I wasn't covered in chemicals all day. And it was making a difference. Many of my rashes subsided, and some disappeared completely - but not all of them.

Determined, I tried to figure out what my skin was coming in contact with that I hadn't already fixed. I had at this point replaced or nixed every lotion, cream, wash, etc. I had been using. And that's when it hit me - my clothes. I wonder what's in my clothes?

I had no idea what I was getting into. The amount of chemicals in clothing was overwhelming.  

Is your clothing cotton? Three to four pounds of chemicals, including fertilizers and pesticides, are used to make one cotton t-shirt. The National Institutes of Health have found these chemicals to cause "problems such as dermatitis and death" (death seems like more than just a "problem"...). In fact, the pesticides on military uniforms have been linked as one of the causes of Gulf War Syndrome.

How about polyester? Polyester is a plastic derived from crude oil. It undergoes a series of chemical processes which involve known toxins and cancer-causing compounds.

Ever wonder why you don't need a cedar chest for your wool clothing anymore? In addition to wool being treated with a whole host of harmful scouring and processing chemicals, wool clothing is coated with a layer of pesticides after production.

Is you clothing colored? Many of the common dyes (azo-dyes) used in clothing are toxic and even several the dyes used in certified organic clothing have been found to cause skin irritation.

Wrinkle-free?  It includes chemicals like formaldehyde (a known carcinogen).

Water-repellent or stain-resistant? It includes chemicals like Scotchguard which are perfluorochemicals in the same family as Teflon that cause birth defects.

I wish I could list even half of what I found, but I think you get the gist. Don't get me wrong, some clothing is better than others, but there is no transparency to know which ones are better. And even then, they were no GOOD options, just less bad.

I wanted clothing that was safe and healthy in every single aspect, down to the thread, dyes, labels, everything. But that didn't exist. So, just like before, I decided that if there were no good options, I would make my own. That is how Sustain was born.