Viscose, rayon, lyocell, modal: you might have seen those fibre names on tags without really knowing what they meant. Neither synthetic nor natural, those fibres are poorly known by consumers, yet often used by the industry, representing 6.3% of the global market. What do they mean? How are they made? Are they eco-friendly? This is what we'll explore here today.

Those new generations of fibres all fall under the same category of cellulosic fibres or artificial fibres. Artificial? So is it natural ? Is it synthetic?  

Well both.

If those materials originate from a natural fibres (cellulose/wood pulp), the fabric can only be transformed into viscose by undergoing a heavily chemical transformation process. In practical terms, viscose is made from 90% cellulose. After extraction, the viscous mass of cellulose is dried, and the viscose is formed, making a very fine and versatile fabric.

Although coming from natural sources, viscose is quite harmful for the environment for multiple reasons.

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Viscose (and rayon): a false good idea.

The use of chemicals:

No surprise here, but the use of highly toxic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, sulphuric acid and above all a central substance, carbon disulphide is a huge downside. Carbon disulphide, used as a solvent for the wood pulp, is a particularly volatile and flammable product that can cause serious illness in people living near manufacturing plants.  

Water consumption:

The process of transforming cellulose into viscose consumes huge amounts of water: between 4,000 to 11,000 litres of water are needed to produce 1 kg of viscose, which manages to exceed the already impressive and dreadful score of cotton production that uses an average of 5,200 litres of water per kg of cotton.

Deforestation

120 million trees are cut every year to supply the textile industry. Around a third of viscose comes from endangered forests.

Great... another false solution then.

Well, hold on! We know we can be party poopers sometimes but there are some positives here. Enhanced versions of viscose exist now and represent interesting options.

Lyocell, tencel and modal: sustainable alternatives to viscose.

These newest generations of viscose are extremely interesting because they are specifically focusing on reducing the impacts cited above.

Definition

Lyocell and Tencel are artificial fibres obtained from eucalyptus cellulose, while Modal comes from beechwood cellulose.

Chemicals:

The processes have limited use of chemicals and replaced the carbon disulphide (ythis highly harmful solvent) by NMNO (N-methylmorpholine N-oxide) which is a non toxique and recyclable. These amide oxydes can be extracted from the water and reused by distillation (evaporation) of the spinning and rinsing baths (up to 97%).  

Water use:

Encouraging improvements here. Its production process uses 20% less water¹ than cotton, which would lead it use to an average of 4160 litres per kg. Still quite resource intensive but since the water can be filtered and reused, we can hope for more improvements in the future.

Deforestation:

The choice of the type of wood is important and interesting here. Lyocell and Tencel use Eucalyptuses, which requires little water. It also uses much less land and space than cotton. Just half an acre of eucalyptus forest is needed to produce 1 tonne of lyocell fibre, where only 0.2 tonne of cotton would have been produced on the same surface (5 times more). For Modal, beechwood is also an interesting wood because it is self-propagating, which means they do not require irrigation or sowing.

Stay cautious.

The environmental footprint of these fibres varies depending on the supplier. Manufacturers have faced allegations from the Rainforest Action Network regarding deforestation in Indonesia. It’s imperative to check the origin of the ones you purchase.

Additionally, we have to keep in mind that there is a lot of issues related to monocultures of wood and the potential impact of a rise in demand for this type of material, which in the case of eucalyptuses and bamboo is exponential, coming from various sectors: packaging industry, beauty....

Overall advantages:

Overall, Lyocel, tencel of modal are all great alternatives in terms of sustainability of the process, but they are also very interesting for their multiplicity of application possible. The most appropriate word here is: polyvalence. These fibres are:  

• highly breathable: it does not retain odours while being around 50% more absorbent than cotton.

• light, fluid and crease-resistant.

• Versatility: which makes it a good alternative to synthetic fibres since it can be used to make sportswear, underwear... which tend to be the hardest garments to make without synthetic fibres.

Although it does have a couple of flaws:

• Lack of elasticity

• More expensive

• Requires specific care (can only be cold washed, avoid tumble dry...).

In short

Viscose is a bit like cotton: it can be pretty high on our clean and green list but it can also be worse than most fibres.

Basic Viscose: not so much, full of chemicals and highly unsustainable producing process.

Lyocell, tencel, modal: Much better, interesting alternative to synthetic fibres.

Here is an example of what to look for:

Lenzing ecovero is specific to the Austrian viscose manufacturer Lenzing who launched their own Standard EcoVero.

• Eco stands for the the European Eco label which rewards textiles whose manufacture has a low environmental impact and promotes employee well-being.

EcoVero fibres are therefore guaranteeing the use of wood fibres from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) or PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification schemes) certified forests.

There you go: now you’ll know the difference between viscose, lyocell, tencell...

Checking the origins and implications of fibres is actually a habit you should developp, especially when coming across new and "exciting" fabrics with weird name: check what it really is and what could be the downfalls of it (energy or water-intensive, chemical use, land use...)

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