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Pro

– Breathable and cooling

– Flax is a strong and durable fiber and gets even stronger over time.

– Due to its ability to absorb water well, it can easily be dyed.

– Linen doesn’t pill

– Flax is fully biodegradable

Cons

– wrinkles easily (requires ironing)

Advice

Use organic linen, dyed with non-toxic dyes. This way you make sure your product causes least possible harm and is compostable at the garment’s end of life.

LINEN / FLAX

Growing in Western Europe and China, flax is one of the oldest natural bast fibers known. It is a renewable and fast-growing fiber and has already been used by mankind for over 8000 years. Linen, which is the term for a yarn and fabric made of flax fibers, is, even though it has great characteristics, used in less than 1% textiles worldwide. Linen is known for its extraordinary properties, such as being antibacterial and antiallergenic, highly water absorbent, but it also dries fast and doesn’t pill.

Flax doesn’t need irrigation during its cultivation but may require more energy due to ironing because of its wrinkly nature. Conventional linen production pollutes water because of the use of a lot of herbicides, but it still has a smaller carbon footprint compared to conventional cotton. Organic linen doesn’t require any herbicides or pesticides at all, what makes it one of the most environmentally friendly fibers.

Flax is fully compostable as long as it is not treated. If it is chemically dyed or treated it, depending on what chemistry was used, it is in most cases not compostable anymore.

Sources

https://cfda.com/resources/materials

https://materialarchiv.ch/en/ma:material_693/?q=linen

https://www.enkev.com/en/products/

https://www.commonobjective.co/article/fibre-briefing-linen

www.news.europeanflax.com/chanvre/

www.lexikon.wohnen.de/leinen/

Textilepedia, Fashionary International Ltd, 2020

Eco-Profile of a linen shirt, Bio Intelligence Service S.A.S., 2008