Why is Microfiber greener?

Environmental protection has become one of the biggest issues if not the biggest- of modern societies. Though very complex, our understanding of environmental and climatic mechanisms is increasing. With it we are realizing that unless willing to run into a catastrophe, we cannot sustain anymore the way of life we have adopted in developed countries during most of the 20^th century.

For most household cleaning chores, microfiber allows to get rid of cleaning products, cutting off their inherent pollution.

On an individual ground, adopting a greener attitude has become a matter of responsibility towards the following generations and also a matter of respect towards the living world. Green technologies are now available in many fields, such as in car industry or in construction, as a mean to replace the former more polluting one. Besides seeking cleaner methods of production for those technologies, it is sometimes the changes they induce that have a strong environmental impact. For instance, green cars may be composed of biodegradable and recycling components that will make its production less polluting and, in the same time, have a much lower fuel consumption engine that reject less pollutants in the atmosphere.

In cleaning applications, microfibers offer both of these advantages and to that extent is greener than cotton and other fibers used for the same purpose.

Intensive cotton production from which most of loop mops are made poses threats on the environment.

Because microfibers have created a little revolution in the cleaning world, its impact, besides being labor saving and cost saving, is environmental friendly. Microfibers textile designed for cleaning are precision tools with remarkable efficiency that allow cleaning on a microscopic scale. Thus, according to tests, using microfiber materials to clean a surface leads to reducing the number of bacteria by 99% whereas a conventional cleaning material reduces this number only by 33%. In addition, microfiber cleaning tools have the ability to absorb fat and grease and their electrostatic properties have a high dust attracting power, hence making useless many cleaning products.

But until the arrival of cleaning designed microfibers, an efficient cleaning could hardly be achieved without the help of various chemical products such as disinfectants and detergents. The use of those household products, although responsible of heavy water pollution that endangers the ecosystem and threatens our health, is still deeply rooted in our mentality. Yet for most household cleaning chores microfiber allows to get rid of those products, cutting off their inherent pollution.

Further, when ordinary loop mops use a large amount of water to mix up with the cleaning products, to be efficient microfiber mops require a negligible quantity of water, which in some area has become a scarce resource. As for laundering, compared to conventional mops, microfiber mops are easier to launder and do not require specific washing machine or cleaning products. Taking much less space in washers and dryers they also reduce the use of water, detergent and energy.

Recycled plastic products are used to produce microfiber, which in turn can be recycled.

Amongst the critics that could be addressed to microfibers designed for cleaning purpose, is the fact that they are synthetic fibers that can induce pollution during their production process and take a very long time to degrade if abandoned in the nature. Polyester and nylon, which are widely used to produce those fibers, are originally derived from petroleum or other hydrocarbons. But recycling products are representing a growing share of new material's production. Production processes have also been improved to reduce rejections and limit their environmental impacts and researches are being held to create polyesters that can decompose through sun light exposure, dampness, insects. Actually biodegradable polyester can already be found in some food packaging. As for nylon, some microorganisms enzymes have been discovered that can naturally degrade it. Besides, a few synthetic fibers that could be used as microfibers, such as viscose or polyamide 11, are made of green raw materials. It is also worth noticing that good quality microfiber mops and cloths are very resistant and unlike conventional mops they can sustain several hundreds of washing without loosing their efficiency. At least they can be recycled if disposed of properly.

To be efficient microfiber mops require a negligible quantity of water.

In any case, every fiber, whether vegetable or synthetic, can pose serious challenges to the environment protection as soon as they are massively produced. Cotton, which is commonly used in loop mops, cannot be considered environmental friendly. Requiring a lot of water and many pesticides to grow, cotton crops have caused pollution and serious damages in many regions (like in the late USSR Aral see area). Transgenic cotton culture which is a way to reduce the use of pesticide causes other hazards such as its uncontrolled proliferation and the development of new forms of pest.

Under many aspects, microfibers, provided a good quality, are much greener cleaning materials than any other similar products and should be adopted by most people concerned about their environment