Cotton or Hemp

In the times when the apparel industry is in need of greener alternatives, hemp can help us with this issue at it's best. Using hemp is not something new. Hemp cloths dating back to 8000 B.C have been found in ancient Mesopotamia (current Iraq). Early civilizations have used hemp for the production of food, clothing, ropes, canvas, or sailcloths among others, reports Sqetch.

Hemp is illegal in most of the countries as it is associated with marijuana (well-known for its psychotropic effects, contains up to 20% of tetrahydrocannabinol, when hemp is an industrial product and contains less then 1% of THC). Situation around legalization of industrial hemp is slowly starting to change. Today, the main producer of hemp is China, followed by France and Chile.

Let's talk a little bit about numbers. To produce 1 pair of jeans we need 1 kg of cotton, and to produce 1 kg of cotton it takes between 6000 and 20000 liters of water! Can you imagine? When 2.5% of agricultural lands on Earth are occupied by cotton, around 25% of pesticides sold in the world are sprayed over cotton crops and it's the third largest consumer of water, hemp is a weed, so it grows prolifically with little water and no pesticides. Hemp plants return 60 to 70 % of nutrients to the soil they’re growing on preventing soil infertility. The advantages of growing hemp is clearly visible and it makes hemp fabric one of the most eco-friendly textiles that exist.

Hemp is a good eco-friendly alternative to cotton and it can be used to make any type of clothes, from underwear to pants, dresses or shirts and even towels and bedsheets.

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