Cotton is everywhere. It is in the towels you use in the morning, in the clothes you wear during the day, and in the bed you sleep on at night. Cotton is the most used fiber in the world. India accounts for almost half of world cotton production with China and the USA following behind. In 2019/2020 India produced 6,423 thousand metric tons of cotton, China produced 5,933 thousand metric tons, and the US produced 4,336 thousand metric tons. The cotton market is highly concentrated. A renewed focus on sustainability in the fashion industry has created a lot of buzz around organic cotton. Organic cotton represents less than 1% of total cotton production in the world yet many retail giants are claiming to use it in percentages that are closer to 100%.
The image of “sustainable fashion” has taken yet another beating, this time from the cotton industry. An ongoing scandal in the industry is the forced labor abuse in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. The issue at hand is that thousands of Muslims from China’s Uygur minority group are forced to work under coercive conditions in cotton fields and the Chinese government refuses to acknowledge it. Another issue facing the sustainable fashion movement is the mislabeling of cotton as organic. This issue was raised in October 2020 when the Global Organic Textile Standard (Gots) revealed that 20,000 tons of cotton in India were labeled “certified organic” when in fact it was not organic. It is hard to certify and trace the origins of organic cotton and make sure that it remains “organic” at every part of production, making it easy for mislabeling cases to fall in between the cracks.
There are four types of cotton used in the fashion industry: conventional cotton, organic cotton, Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and recycled cotton.
You may be wondering which cotton is best. This is a question that everyone in the fashion industry faces. Organic cotton will probably be better for the earth and the industry in the long run; however, it is hard to compete with the short-term benefits and pros of conventional cotton. Increasing awareness of sustainable fashion is increasing demand for organic cotton; however, there is not enough organic cotton to satisfy everyone’s demands. In 2018/2019 there were around 222,134 farmers in 19 countries growing certified organic cotton in the world. This number needs to drastically increase if organic cotton is to have any chance of becoming the most used cotton. Better Cotton Initiative is a happy medium between conventional and organic cotton. BCI must be grown sustainably but is allowed to be mixed with conventional cotton during the production of textiles which makes it easier for companies to slowly transition from solely using conventional cotton to using organic cotton. This discussion of which cotton is best also raises the question of what other textiles are available and are they better than cotton.
Sources: The Organic Cotton Trap, Fabric of Our Lives, Better Cotton Initiative, The Pros and Cons of Organic Cotton
