When you buy eucalyptus clothing, pay attention to the TENCEL™ quality mark. With us you have nothing to worry about, but there are a lot of fake fabrics on the market.
Call it viscose, rayon or lyocell, fabrics made from plant fibres have many names. But most of them (including bamboo) aren't as eco-friendly as they might seem. Aggressive chemicals are needed in order to dissolve plant fibres. The fumes that escape during production are extremely toxic and can affect the nervous systems of the workers handling them. The consequences can be as serious as blindness, impotence, rage, psychosis, heart attacks, strokes or even death.
The real product
Only the Austrian company Lenzing makes the synthetic fibre TENCEL™ in a safe and sustainable process. The fibres are dissolved in amine-oxide, in a closed loop process, and all the chemicals are re-used over and over. Lenzing also only uses wood from sustainably managed forests. The production of TENCEL™ is many times more eco-friendly than that of cotton. Read more about the process here.
"TENCEL™ has problems with producers copying the product."
But TENCEL™ also has problems with (Asian) producers who have copied the product, but not the safe process. So when you buy pay attention to the official quality mark!
How do we get this quality mark?
With every batch we produce we send a few meters of the fabric to Lenzing in Austria. There they check if it is indeed the official fabric, and the production is given a certificate of authenticity. Happy shopping!