Cotton is a natural fiber harvested from the cotton plant. Cotton is a member of the Mallow family and is related to the ornamental flowering plants Hollyhock and Hibiscus. It is one of the oldest fibers under human cultivation, with traces of cotton over 7,000 years old having been recovered from archaeological sites. Having has been spun, woven, and dyed since prehistoric times cotton is one of the most widely used natural fibers in existence today.
Thousands of acres of land globally are devoted to the production of cotton. After mechanical harvesting, the cotton fiber is separated from the cotton seed and processing begins. In the first step of the ginning process the cotton is vacuumed into tubes that carry it to a dryer to reduce moisture and improve the fiber quality. It is then runs through cleaning equipment to remove leaf trash, sticks and other foreign matter. After being rolled and made into lint it is then compressed into bales, graded, priced and taken to market for sale.
The environmental concerns surrounding cotton are pesticides and herbicides which quell insects and plant competition. Also of concern is the cotton bleaching process and the amount of fresh water used to process cotton. In the latter part of the last century, there was a push for organic, sustainable cotton grown and harvested without the use of pesticides and human exploitation. Although organically grown and processed cotton can be significantly more expensive than conventionally farmed cotton, when weighed against the size of its environmental footprint, it is a by far the more ecologically sound investment.
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