01
Water
Per-kg water demand from cultivation through processing. Cotton needs more than hemp; recycled polyester less than virgin. Closed-loop dyeing changes the picture significantly.
Technology · Eco-friendly materials
Eco-friendly is not a material. It is a comparison.
Every textile material has trade-offs across water, land, energy, chemicals and end-of-life behaviour. The honest question isn’t ‘is this material eco-friendly’ (most claims fail under scrutiny) but ‘is it better than the alternative for this specific use case’. Below: how the major textile materials actually compare, and why we’ve made the choices we have.
The framework
Six impact categories that decide whether a material is ‘better’.
No textile material wins on every category. The honest analysis weighs all six against each other, then matches the material to the use case where its strengths matter most. Here’s the framework procurement and design teams should apply — and it is the same framework behind our print on demand in Europe, where the material choice and the print method are decided together.
02
Land
Hectares per kilogram of finished fibre. Synthetics skip this category; natural fibres compete with food crops. Hemp and linen yield more fibre per hectare than cotton.
03
Energy
Embodied energy from cultivation or extraction through finished textile. Synthetics run higher per kg; cotton sits in the middle; linen and hemp lower.
04
Chemicals
Pesticides, dyes, finishing chemistry. Conventional cotton is high; organic cotton is low. OEKO-TEX-listed dye chemistry resets this category.
05
End of life
What happens at end of useful life. Natural fibres biodegrade; synthetics shed microplastic and persist for centuries. Blends are typically worst — neither recyclable nor cleanly biodegradable.
06
Carbon
Total kgCO2e per kg of finished fibre across the lifecycle. It generally tracks energy + transport + cultivation, but blends-of-blends complicate the calculation.
Side by side
Materials, compared honestly.
Qualitative scoring — figures vary widely by source, region and processing, so this is the directional picture, not an exact LCA.
| Material | Water | Land | Energy | Chemicals | End of life | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Organic cotton | High | Med-high | Med | Low | Biodegradable | Apparel, bedding, premium home textiles |
| Conventional cotton | High | Med-high | Med | High | Biodegradable | Generally not used — we go organic |
| Hemp | Low | Low | Low | Low | Biodegradable | Heavy textiles, bags — rougher hand |
| Linen | Low-med | Low | Low | Low | Biodegradable | Premium bedding, summer apparel, decor |
| Lyocell / Tencel | Low | Med | Med | Low (closed-loop) | Biodegradable | Premium apparel — fluid drape |
| Virgin polyester | Low | None | High | High | Microplastic, persists | Generally not used outside outdoor / wet-room |
| Recycled polyester (rPET) | Low | None | Med | Med | Microplastic, persists | Where polyester is genuinely required, recycled is preferred |
| Microfibre polyester | Low | None | High | High | Microplastic shedding | Specific outdoor / wet-room durability only |
The Fabrixa default
Why organic cotton is the right answer for most of what we make.
Organic cotton isn’t the cheapest material on the table, and isn’t the lowest in every category. It is the right material for the products we ship most often — apparel, bedding, indoor home textiles — when judged by the balance of all six categories. It’s also the material the reactive print process is designed for: cellulose fibres are what reactive dye bonds to, so material and chemistry have to align.
- Chemical footprint — organic cotton removes synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers at cultivation; GOTS verifies it from seed to finished textile.
- End of life — pure cotton biodegrades; reactive print bonds dye into the fibre, so there’s no plastic film and no microplastic shedding.
- Print-chemistry alignment — reactive print is engineered for cellulose; cotton’s hydroxyl groups bond covalently with reactive dye.
Where we use non-cotton
Synthetics where the use case requires them.
Some products can’t reasonably be made from cotton — outdoor cushions in UV and rain, shower curtains in continuous wet contact, yoga mats needing anti-slip backing. We use synthetic substrates only where cotton can’t do the job, and disclose it on the relevant product pages.
Outdoor poly-acrylic
Cushions, tablecloths and runners for patios and terraces. UV-stable and water-shedding — cotton would degrade rapidly under the same exposure.
See the range → Microfibre polyesterShower curtains, dual-side towels and sublimation napkins. Wet-room functionality and dual-side print, where the synthetic side is engineered for the print, not the wear.
See the range → Poly + NBR (mats)Bath mats, yoga mats and doormats with anti-slip backing. NBR is a plasticiser-free rubber alternative; the use case demands non-slip safety on wet surfaces.
See the range →Recycled-polyester (rPET) options for these categories are on the roadmap — talk to our team for current availability.
For procurement teams
Three questions to ask any textile supplier.
The eco-friendly claim is easy to make and hard to verify. These three questions separate suppliers with real answers from suppliers with marketing copy — here are ours.
Ask: fibre composition
What’s the fibre composition?
Pure cotton, organic-certified cotton, a synthetic blend, or ‘eco-friendly’ without disclosing composition? Blends-of-blends are the red flag — neither recyclable nor cleanly biodegradable.
Fabrixa: 100% organic cotton on apparel and bedding; a 90/10 cotton-linen blend on bed-spread variants; 100% cotton Half Panama on cushions, indoor tablecloths, runners and window curtains. Synthetics disclosed per product.
Ask: print certification
What certification covers the print?
OEKO-TEX Standard 100 covers the finished textile; STeP and bluesign cover production processes. Asking which level applies to which stage forces a real answer.
Fabrixa: OEKO-TEX Standard 100 across the finished textiles, Class I on apparel, kidswear and bedding cotton; STeP at the Portuguese print partner’s facility.
Ask: the LCA
Can you share the LCA?
Per-SKU or per-process Life Cycle Assessment data. Real suppliers can produce numbers; marketing language can’t. The willingness to disclose matters more than the number itself.
Fabrixa: Per-SKU water, energy and carbon estimates on request for ESG reporting; the Portuguese process is independently audited — 98% water and 95% energy reduction versus conventional dyeing.
Definitions
What is unprocessed material in textile printing?
Unprocessed material is fabric that has not been chemically finished — no coating, no optical brighteners, no softeners. It is the cloth as woven or knitted, before anything is added to change how it looks or feels.
Why reactive printing wants it
Reactive dye bonds directly with the untreated cotton fibre instead of sitting on a finishing layer. The result is deeper colour, full wash-fastness and a textile that still feels like textile — which is why we print on GOTS-certified cotton without unnecessary pre-treatment.
Why it ages better
Prints that live inside the fibre survive washing and wear in a way surface-bound pigment or DTF prints do not — no cracking, no fading along fold lines. Fewer chemical finishes also means a shorter ingredient list for certification and disposal.
For design & ESG teams
Get the per-SKU material data.
Brands and retailers needing per-unit material composition, certification references and per-SKU lifecycle data for ESG reporting can request the full pack within 48 hours of asking. We send the source data and methodology, not just summary claims.