My visit to the Cotton Inc. booth at TechTextil North America was an eye-opener. Janet O’Regan, Director of Nonwovens Marketing for this not-for-profit organization set me straight on a few things and shared some amazing applications for cotton. First, I was under the misapprehension that cotton requires a lot of water to grow, a concern in an environmentally challenged world. Not so! Cotton is a drought-resistant plant, she explained, adding, “The U.S. is the number three grower, behind India and China. Half of the U.S. cotton crop is grown in West Texas with no irrigation. And all of the inputs into cotton—seeds, soil, sunlight, some water—are renewable, compared to polyester, where you have to drill for and pump oil, which is not renewable. Then you have to chemically process it into polyester, which will persist for many hundreds of years or longer.”

She raises great points, especially in light of the growing world awareness of the damage plastics and polyesters are doing to the environment, including polyester microfibers that are getting into our waterways and oceans as a result of laundering polyester items, and more. Today’s laundry facilities and water treatment plants can’t filter that stuff out, and it’s causing great harm.

Cotton Inc. participates in hundreds of projects per year to advance the agriculture and use of cotton around the world. Those projects span the gamut from seeds to sustainability to meet the needs of the markets and our environment.