Organic cotton, while it seems like a really fantastic eco-option for your clothing, may not be as environmentally friendly as you think.  While organic cotton is wonderful for it’s lack of pesticides and can offer a really soft, silky feel, it still uses a lot of water to grow properly, so it doesn’t quite qualify as sustainable.  The good thing is that there are many new growing and watering techniques being used to help organic cotton become more sustainable.  With new saturation techniques and greywater being used in many cases, this still makes organic cotton a more eco-friendly choice than it’s traditional counterparts.

Organic cotton is used in everything from bed linens, to towels, shirts and socks, to lingerie.  Most organic cotton uses more eco-friendly dyes and bleaches, so you don’t defeat the purpose of buying the organic cotton with unsafe dying and bleaching techniques which can harm the environment.  Also, with organic cotton, there are no pesticides woven into the fabric, which allows you to rest easy in your bed of delightful organic cotton linens. 

The beauty of organic cotton is that it can still be used the same way traditional cotton is, and the fabrics can be as soft as traditional cotton fabrics, without the potentially harmful side effects to you or the environment. 

While organic cotton products are at the moment, a little more expensive, they are still worth the cost.  Especially when you consider that any crop grown with pesticides can cause dangerous runoff if it rains before the pesticides break down, which happens more than you know.  Even though there are strict guidelines in the US and many companies worldwide, there are many countries who don’t impose limitations on what kinds of pesticides are used.  These practices are having dramatic effects in these countries and their environments. 

If pesticide runoff is causing marine life in Australia to have fatal birth defects and if the use of pesticides being used in fields of China is causing algae that’s threatening a water source for 320,000 people, why does it make sense to keep buying products that have been made with cotton made in these countries?  Pesticides, when used for the life of the plant, from inception to harvest, become part of the plant.  Pesticides won’t wash out and while, for the most part, they won’t cause major skin reactions or sickness from the finished product, it’s still going to get onto your skin when you use it.

The next time you’re shopping for new sheets and towels, it might be a good idea to look into some more eco-friendly options, such as organic cotton, bamboo and organic silk.  Depending on your budget, you may want to shop around a little bit, but you will find the environmental benefits far outweigh the costs.  Eventually, organic cotton and other eco-friendly fabric options will be more readily available and eventually, less expensive.