Viscose rayon is often referred to as a more sustainable fabric.But a new survey shows that one of its most popular suppliers is contributing to deforestation in Indonesia.
According to NBC reports, satellite images of the tropical rainforest in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan show that despite previous commitments to stop deforestation, one of the world’s largest fabric manufacturers provides fabrics for companies such as Adidas, Abercrombie & Fitch, and H&M, but may still Clearing the rainforest.News survey.
Viscose rayon is a fabric made from the pulp of eucalyptus and bamboo trees.Since it is not made from petrochemical products, it is often advertised as a more environmentally friendly option than fabrics such as polyester and nylon made from petroleum.Technically, these trees can be regenerated, making viscose rayon a theoretically better choice for the production of items such as clothes and baby wipes and masks.
But the way these trees are harvested can also cause huge damage.For many years, most of the world’s viscose rayon supply has come from Indonesia, where timber suppliers have repeatedly cleared ancient tropical rainforests and planted rayon.Like palm oil plantations, one of Indonesia’s largest industrial sources of deforestation, a single crop planted to produce viscose rayon will dry out the land, making it vulnerable to forest fires; destroying the habitat of endangered species such as orangutans Land; and it absorbs much less carbon dioxide than the rain forest it replaces.(A study on palm oil plantations published in 2018 found that every hectare of tropical rainforest converted to a single crop releases roughly the same amount of carbon as a flight of more than 500 people from Geneva to New York.)
In April 2015, Asia Pacific Resources International Holdings Limited (APRIL), one of Indonesia’s largest pulp and wood suppliers, vowed to stop using wood from forest peatlands and tropical rainforests.It also promises to harvest trees in a more sustainable way.But the environmental organization released a report using satellite data last year showing how APRIL’s sister company and holding company are still carrying out deforestation, including clearing nearly 28 square miles (73 square kilometers) of forest in the five years since the promise.(The company denied these allegations to NBC.)
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“You have gone from one of the most biologically diverse places in the world to a place that is essentially like a biological desert,” said Edward Boyda, the co-founder of Earthrise, who checked the deforested satellite for NBC News. image.
According to corporate disclosures seen by NBC, pulp extracted from Kalimantan by some of the holding companies was sent to a sister processing company in China, where the fabrics produced were sold to major brands.
In the past 20 years, Indonesia’s tropical rainforest has declined sharply, mainly driven by palm oil demand.A 2014 study found that its deforestation rate is the highest in the world.Due to a variety of factors, including government requirements for palm oil producers, deforestation has slowed in the past five years.The covid-19 pandemic has also slowed production.
But environmentalists worry that the demand for pulpwood from paper and fabrics — partly due to the rise of fast fashion — may lead to a resurgence of deforestation.Many major fashion brands in the world have not revealed the origin of their fabrics, which adds another layer of opacity to what is happening on the ground.
“In the next few years, I am most worried about pulp and wood,” Timer Manurung, head of Indonesian NGO Auriga, told NBC.
Post time: Jan-04-2022