65% of clothes are made from plastic-based fibers. If your tag says polyester, nylon or acrylic...that means plastic. And that’s a problem for three reasons: 1) it keeps us dependent on fossil fuels (plastic is made from petroleum), 2) plastic doesn’t biodegrade and 3) plastic is toxic.

Plastic is a synthetic material. It takes up to 500 years to break down and never actually biodegrades. In other words: all the plastic that has ever existed, still exists. Every plastic bottle, every polyester t-shirt, is still in a landfill or floating in the ocean.

During every wash, plastic-based fibers shed microplastics and leach toxins into the water (plastic is mixed with toxic chemicals). As a result, microplastics are everywhere. New studies show we eat a credit card’s worth of plastic every week.

Natural materials make better clothes. Unlike plastic, natural materials have evolved over thousands (or millions) of years and are very dynamic. Fibers made from plants and wool are more breathable, more antimicrobial, and more enduring.

Natural materials are inherently biodegradable. They come from the Earth, and return just as easily. Clothes made from natural fibers will turn to soil within a year (so long as they’re free of chemical softeners or dyes).

Unlike synthetics, natural materials have the capacity to regenerate. Seeds make new plants...which make new seeds. Wool grows back. All that’s required is sun and water (and food for the sheep).