Gunter Pauli warns of “cascade effect” of moving - sportstextiles: Lea SportsTextiles

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Gunter Pauli warns of “cascade effect” of moving away from natural fibres

29/01/2016
Entrepreneur, author of The Blue Economy and founder of the Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) network, Dr Gunter Pauli, has said the textile industry ought to be more aware of the consequences for the health of the planet of moves from natural fibres to synthetic ones.

Speaking specifically about silk, he said in recent comments that an important environmental spin-off of silk worms eating mulberry leaves (a renewable resource), the worms’ droppings generate between 10 and 15 tonnes of new top soil per hectare per year, fixing carbon.

“Substituting silk with Nylon is not about substituting a natural with a synthetic,” Dr Pauli said. “It’s stopping the production of top soil and carbon fixation. It seems a mere shift from an expensive product to a cheap one, but do we realise the cascade effect? Can business just pocket profits while Nature loses its regenerative capacity to produce soil and regulate carbon?”

Dr Gunter Pauli was the subject of the Innovators feature in WSA in November-December 2015.


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