While a lot of clothing is made from natural fibers such as cotton, most aren’t suitable to be thrown in the compost due to dyes, polyester tags, and buttons. That is until Swiss manufacturer Freitag – best known for upcycling used truck tarp into bags – steps in with a new collection of clothing that is considered safe for composting. “It’s really the first 100% biodegradable textile,” explains Freitag’s Oliver Brunschwiler. “Most companies still have polyester thread in their clothing, but our thread is 100% biodegradable, as are our shirts buttons, which are made out of a nut. On the pants, themetal button can be screwed off and used again.” Freitag is already doing a fine job by upcycling those used truck tarps into bags, but the cycle wasn’t closed: if the upcycled item wasn’t used anymore, it had to be thrown away. That’s what inspired their new fabric that is made from a mix of flax, hemp, and modal – a fiber made from wood. The designers decided not to use cotton since it needs 10 times the water to grow linen.

Work on the project began five years ago by testing the collection with workers at their own factory. Even though the pieces are designed to break down in a composter after a few months, the fabrics are extremely durable when you wear them – especially the denim that is scrub resistant, not unlike workwear.

Made and sold in Europe, Freitag avoids the usual global production process:  “The problem we have in globalization is if you take cotton and it’s grown in Louisiana, for example, they ship it over to China and wash it and bleach it, then it gets sent back to Mexico and they make it into fabric, and then it gets sent back to China where they sew it and make shirts,” says Brunschwiler. “They have like 45,000 kilometers on their back before you can actually buy it somewhere.”

The hemp and flax are grown in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France while the yarns are spun in Italy and Slovenia. The fabrics are made in Portugal and Italy, sewing is done in Poland. To keep it local, the collection can only be purchased in Europe.

(Via Co.Exist)