Monday, February 02, 2015

Organic Cotton

I have a general question.  If you were to look at 2 t-shirts and one was organic cotton and the other was just cotton which one would you buy?  Would you spend a bit more for the organic cotton shirt?

I have a set of pjs and a shirt that are organic cotton.  They feel great, although I will honestly say they feel just like "regular" cotton to me.  Not softer and not too stiff.  But, here is my issue.  Both items (which I spent more than I would normally spend) have small holes throughout them now.  I wear and wash them just like my normal regular cotton clothing and out of no where there are little holes.  Is this something to do with it being organic cotton or just these items?  I don't have a good answer for it, but it makes me not want to buy organic cotton again.

I started wondering what is organic cotton. (from Wikipedia)
Organic cotton is generally understood as cotton and is grown in subtropical countries such as Turkey, China, USA from non genetically modified plants, that is to be grown without the use of any synthetic agricultural chemicals such as fertilizers or pesticides.[1] Its production also promotes and enhances biodiversity and biological cycles.[2][dead link] In the United States cotton plantations must also meet the requirements enforced by the National Organic Program (NOP), from the USDA, in order to be considered organic. This institution determines the allowed practices for pest control, growing, fertilizing, and handling of organic crops.[3][4] As of 2007, 265,517 bales of organic cotton were produced in 24 countries and worldwide production was growing at a rate of more than 50% per year.[5]

 

After reading what organic cotton is, I think I want to buy it more.  But, I'm worried about the longevity of the items I purchase.  I'd be interested to know if other people see the same small holes appearing in their organic cotton items.  Reading this thread hasn't helped at all.  I'm going to guess maybe small aliens are eating my clothing!
 


2 comments:

alex wetmore said...

It might just be the weave from a particular mill that made the fabric used in the items.

I've had similar trouble with my Ibex merino wool clothes getting small holes much more quickly than my Icebreaker or Smartwool merino wool clothes. They are all the same basic material woven to the same thickness of cloth, but something about how Ibex does it doesn't hold up for me.

I wouldn't avoid the whole category of organic cotton, but maybe the brands that don't hold up.

We have some organic cotton sheets on our sailboat that also seemed to get holes and pill faster than any other sheets, but they are extremely soft and were inexpensive. I figure that's the tradeoff, I can't get soft, cheap, and durable.

Anonymous said...

just don't get organic kitty litter