Textiles are all around us
From clothes and furniture to medical and protective equipment, textiles form an essential part of our everyday lives. As consumption of textiles continues to grow, so does its impact on the environment. EU consumption of textiles has, on average, the fourth highest impact on the environment and climate change, after food, housing and mobility.
In addition, the textile industry generates considerable greenhouse gas emissions, while consuming copious amounts of water and primary raw materials.
Moreover, most of the textiles we use today are made from fossil sources. Synthetic fibres, like polyester, are made from fossil sources and account for two-thirds of global fibre production. Low prices and properties, such as elasticity and moisture control, make these fabrics a staple in wardrobes around the world, but they come at a high cost.
These fibres take a long time to break down and persist in the environment, resulting in serious pollution. Today, about 8% of European microplastics released to oceans comes from synthetic textiles.
Bio-based textiles could provide an alternative. Unlike fossil-based fibres, they are largely biodegradable and renewable. In addition, they offer huge potential for innovation. Bio-based textile fibres production plays a significant role within the European bioeconomy, contributing to competitiveness, while reducing strategic dependencies and enhancing resilience and sustainability of the EU textile sector.
In 2021, the bio-based textiles sector employed almost 700 000 people in the EU. The value added by this sector was 25 billion EUR, representing 3.5% of the total value added of biomass producing and converting sectors.
What are bio-based textiles?
Bio-based textiles are produced from renewable biomass sources such as wood or fibre crops, but also algae, fungi, agricultural waste or end-of-life textiles can be converted into fibres for textile applications.
There are three main types of bio-based fibres: natural, semi-synthetic and synthetic fibres. Each type has its own specific value chain based on a variety of production technologies, resulting in textiles with different properties, applications, challenges and opportunities.
Natural fibres
Natural fibres have been used since ancient times. Think of linen, hemp, wool, silk or cotton. These natural fibres come from plants and animals, and while they are largely bio-degradable, their value chain often includes labour-intensive steps that come with their own environmental costs, in terms of water, land, fertiliser and pesticides consumption.
Cotton is the second most produced fibre in the world, but the EU holds only a minor share of the cotton market and is expected to remain a net importer. Before the arrival of cotton, flax (linen) and hemp were the main natural fibres used in Europe. They fit well in the (mostly north-western) European ecosystems and are useful rotation crops that contribute to biodiversity and healthy soils.
Wool fibre production and processing in Europe is also an ancient tradition. Revitalising it could bring benefits to people and ecosystems.
Semi-synthetic fibres
Semi-synthetic fibres, like viscose and lyocell, are the second most common type of bio-based fibre. These are human-made but obtained from biological sources, such as plants containing cellulose. Viscose is the oldest semi-synthetic fibres and was first introduced in the 19th century.
Originally, its production involved large amounts of water and toxic chemicals, which were released directly into the environment.
Today’s production process is much improved, resulting in significantly less pollution. It uses sustainable sources of cellulose, drawn mostly from certified wood. Agricultural residues and end-of-life textiles are further options with great potential: they can help reduce the environmental impact of the semi-synthetic fibre industry and help support local textile production and circular economy practices in the EU.
However, there is still a lack of sufficient systems to collect and convert these materials to usable cellulose sources.
Bio-based synthetic fibres
Bio-based synthetic fibres are a more recent innovation, designed to substitute synthetic fibres of fossil origin. Synthetic fibres are produced from fibre-forming polymers, made of small building blocks called monomers.
Bio-based monomers are typically produced in biorefineries through biomass pre-treatment and further conversion. Sugar, starch, lignin, plant oils and proteins are possible feedstock options for the extraction of bio-based monomers.
The bio-based synthetics category includes both partly bio-based, and 100 % bio-based synthetics. Polylactic acid or PLA is the only fully bio-based synthetic fibre that is currently commercially available. While biodegradable, it does not match the performance of fossil-based polyesters.
Other bio-based synthetic fibres are still in their early development, and it could take some time before they can be used as ecofriendly alternatives to fossil-based synthetic textiles.
What is the EU doing?
The EU is actively working towards a greener, more sustainable textile sector, and has policies in place to harness the potential of bio-based textiles. Together, the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU Industrial Strategy and the EU Strategy for sustainable and circular textiles work to promote the environmental, economic, and social benefits of bio-based textiles.
The European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Bioeconomy contributes to these policy efforts by collecting and processing data and up-to-date evidence on bio-based textiles and making them available to policymakers, researchers and other experts in the field.
The Knowledge Centre now hosts a new web page with a video, a science for policy brief and many other knowledge resources, showing the policy context as well as the latest research projects on bio-based textiles.
How can we harness the potential of bio-based textiles?
The bio-based textile sector is a complex sector, which plays an important role in the EU bioeconomy. Different value chains within this sector hold different social, environmental and economic potentials, each requiring different strategies.
Increased collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential to scaling up production of the most promising bio-based textiles in the EU. Key knowledge gaps on functionality, recyclability, market acceptance and environmental performance of new bio-based textiles need to be addressed.
In addition, new technologies are needed to increase the efficiency and viability of traditional value chains, and to facilitate the use of sustainable raw materials.