Rayon Vs Cotton: What Is The More Ethical & Sustainable Fabric?

Rayon is a plant-based fiber, but it undergoes a significant chemical-laden process to render it into a usable semi-synthetic fiber. Cotton is also a plant-based fiber, and its final product remains a natural fiber. So it must be lush for our bodies and the environment, right?

Not exactly. Many chemicals contribute to the world’s “dirtiest” natural fabric.

In a nutshell, neither cotton nor rayon are eco-friendly fabrics., but is one worse than the other? To get the full scope of the cotton vs rayon debate, let’s break down these technically-biodegradable fabrics one stitch at a time.

Rayon, sometimes called viscose or viscose rayon, was invented in the 1800s by accident. Chemists were looking to create explosives but instead ended up with what became one of the world’s foremost semi-synthetic fabrics, or “cellulosic fibers”. The invention “exploded” onto the market as a more affordable and artificial silk alternative.

Rayon most commonly comes from the processed pure cellulose (AKA wood pulp) of bamboo, pine, eucalyptus, or beech trees. While it begins as a natural material, an intense chemical process transforms the wood pulp into rayon fibers.

Rayon is also known as viscose or viscose rayon, and sometimes lyocell fabric and modal fabric—though these semi-synthetic fabrics are typically not lumped in with viscose rayon for their more sustainable production methods.

Bamboo rayon, cactus leather, banana “silk” fabric, seaweed fabric, and all other human-created plant-based fibers are likewise technically part of the rayon or viscose fabric family. When brands market an innovative new “natural” fiber, especially in activewear and outdoor clothing, it is likely some type of rayon.

As a rule of thumb, unless a company is open about what chemicals and (ideally closed-loop) processes they use to make their “regenerative” or “plant-based” fabrics, it’s safest to assume there’s some greenwashing going on.

What Are the Different Kinds of Rayon?

There are many different types of rayon, some better than others:.

• Viscose is famous for its silk-like texture. While viscose fabric drapes nicely and is generally durable and absorbent, it also has low “wet strength,” which means it can stretch or shrink easily if wet. Often viscose garments need dry cleaning, which is a whole other eco headache.

• Modal is the softest and most comfortable type of rayon. It begins its life as beech-tree pulp and makes a stretchy, soft fabric.

• Lyocell has a very similar look and feel to modal but is made using eucalyptus pulp in a less chemical-laden process.

Both modal and lyocell fabric are largely created by the Austrian company Lenzing under the name TENCEL™.

TENCEL™ is third-party verified for its use of sustainable sourcing and closed-loop manufacturing (i.e., recycling all solvents and water used to process the pulp). For that reason, both lyocell and modal have come to be regarded as something separate from standard rayon. Unlike with bamboo rayon or viscose rayon, “rayon” is never attached to the terms lyocell and modal.

How Is Rayon Created?

Herein lies the heart of the (plant) matter. While called a “semi-synthetic” this is misleading, because there isn’t much natural about how rayon—especially viscose rayon—is created.

It begins by steeping wood pulp in a caustic soda solution of sodium hydroxide. After days of chemical aging, the crumbs are mixed with carbon disulfide, and dissolved again in sodium hydroxide to form a honey-colored viscous (hence the name).

After aging and oxygen removal, it’s extruded through a spinneret to create fibers, which are placed in an acid bath of sulfuric acid, sodium sulfate, glucose, and zinc sulfate. Here, the solution is regenerated (hence the common greenwashed marketing ploy) back into cellulose fiber, or rather, viscose rayon.

That isn’t so eco-friendly sounding, is it?

Is Rayon Ethical?

Human factory workers bear the brunt of rayon’s less-than-healthy processing. Since rayon’s invention 150 years ago, the same chemicals have been used to make it despite many studies showing the negative impact they have on humans.

Creating viscose rayon is so harmful that much of its creation process is now banned in the United States. Meanwhile, rayon is the most popular man-made cellulosic fiber, with approximately 80% market share and 5.8 million tons produced in 2022.

This means that textile garment workers in countries like Bangladesh, China, India, and Indonesia must work with dangerous chemicals to produce viscose rayon. The issues?

Firstly, the caustic soda used is corrosive and can cause blindness.

Secondly, sulfuric acid is battery acid. It’s classified as a hazardous substance and causes significant burn damage to skin and eyes. When inhaled as a mist, the National Institute of Health classifies it as a human carcinogen.

Thirdly, and the most concerning of all, is the use of carbon disulfide (CS₂). This can cause a toxic degenerative brain disease with adverse effects on the nervous system, including personality changes, dizziness, anxiety, anorexia, vision changes, and Parkinsonian paralysis. Beyond the brain and nervous systems, it can also inflict acute complications upon the kidneys, heart, nerves, liver, eyes, blood, and skin. CS₂ can even cause mental deterioration and psychosis amongst garment workers who are exposed long term.

In a 1983 study, almost half the workers were poisoned after just one year of working with the substance. In short, the ethical conundrum of viscose rayon production is as harsh as the chemicals it involves.

Is Rayon Sustainable?

The environmental impact of carbon disulfide used to create rayon is as alarming as its human impact. For every kilogram of viscose rayon produced, up to 251 grams of CS₂ is released into the environment, making its way into drinking water, animals, and humans.

Then there’s the impact of deforestation. Rayon production uses over 150 million trees per year. If placed end to end, those trees would circle the earth seven times. Worse, between 2013 and 2020, the number of trees logged for viscose rayon doubled. Logging for fast fashion has reached a tipping point, with less than 20% of the world’s old-growth forests remaining. The implications for indigenous communities, biodiversity, food security, and the environment are of top concern.

Lastly, traditional rayon production requires huge amounts of toxins, water, and energy. Unless we’re talking TENCEL™, it’s also not closed-loop or circular. It requires high-impact cleaning like dry cleaning and doesn’t always biodegrade. When it does, it’s filled with chemicals we don’t want in our soils.

Sustainable Forms Of Rayon Fabric

Once again Lenzing’s TENCEL™ modal and lyocell are two big exceptions. The main difference between the two is that lyocell is made through a more sustainable solvent spinning technique that causes no significant chemical change to the fibers. Lenzing isn’t the exclusive modal and lyocell producer, but they’re seen as the most sustainable. Aside from recapturing inputs via a closed-loop system, these fabrics are stronger, more absorbent, and more durable, capable of being loved for years to avoid the local landfill.

Other healthier alternatives to conventional rayon include:

• Refibra™
• Re:newcell
• EvrnuFiber™
• Orange Fibre
• Birla Eco Viscose

Now, onto our next fuzzy fabric.

Cotton originates from the wooly tissues grown within cotton bolls on the cotton plant. These small, dense, fluffy “clouds” of natural fiber get spun into cotton thread, which can be woven into anything from cotton socks to organic cotton pajamas.

Cotton has a long and complicated history. Originally developed and grown in India, its balance of strength and softness made it popular during the Industrial Revolution, especially in Britain and the US. Most nefariously, the demand for cotton was the main impetus for enslaving people in both the US and many British-governed areas of the world at the time.

How is Cotton Created?

Cotton is a natural fiber, but its process to satisfy the fast fashion demands of the textile industry is not.

Cotton plants are grown en masse, and either a cotton picker machine or a cotton stripper machine removes the cotton bolls. Generally, a stripper is more invasive, as it destroys the whole cotton plant after a single harvest and wastes a lot of the plant. Alternatively, cotton is picked by hand, but up to 20% of hand picked cotton in China is reportedly done via forced labor.

The natural fibers are then cleaned of their seeds and debris and turned into spools of cotton yarn. This happens at spinning mills. From the yarn form, cotton fabric is made by weaving it with a loom—into everything from jersey knit for t-shirts to denim to sateen bed sheets.

What Are the Different Kinds of Cotton?

There is no “perfect” fabric out there (yet!). Cotton is no exception, but there are some more sustainable versions. There are six common types of cotton fabric:

• Pima Cotton: Grown in South America, these long-staple fibers yield the highest quality and softest cotton.
• Egyptian Cotton: This is the same species as Pima but grown in Egypt using uniquely Egyptian methods.
• Upland Cotton: Classic, cheap, GMO cotton contributing to the devastating effects of arid land, chemical runoff, monoculture, and forced labor.
• Organic Cotton: Non-GMO cotton plants are grown pesticide-free, though (especially given the greenwashing surrounding organic cotton) it doesn’t always guarantee a smaller carbon footprint.
• Regenerative Cotton: Takes organic methods a step further by making the farming process biodynamic, holistic, zero-waste, and closed-loop.
• Regenerated Cotton: Recycled, regenerated, or upcycled cotton is more environmentally friendly than organic cotton and performs just as well.

Compared to rayon, cotton is stronger, more breathable, less flammable, retains color better, and is more natural—but does that mean it’s “better”?

Not necessarily.

Is Cotton Ethical?

Despite technological advances, modern cotton production is hardly more ethical than in the times of US slavery. In the words of renowned activist Vandana Shiva, “Cotton has become a seed of slavery.”

All too often, profits over people create an unethical cotton harvesting and production model, one where government subsidies go to industrial farms instead of hungry small-scale farmers forced to rely on volatile cotton market prices. In India, cotton farmers are paid so little they choose “death over distress”. Ten thousand farmers and agricultural workers in India died from suicide in 2020.

Then there is the aforementioned forced labor crisis with cotton in places like China and Turkey—the latter of which provides 83 fashion brands (including H&M and Zara) with cotton through slave labor.

All in all, the only current cotton types considered ethical are recycled, fair trade, and organic cotton—though testimonies regarding the falsification of “organic” farming methods in India and China especially call the ethics of organic cotton into question, too.

Is Cotton Sustainable?

The not-so-soft reality is that conventional cotton cultivation interconnects many environmental, social, and economic issues and is not sustainable.

Cotton is a thirsty crop grown in semi-arid places, where water scarcity is often a serious issue. It takes 2700 liters of water for just one t-shirt! Copious amounts of damaging chemicals help grow the crop, hence its infamous tag as the world’s “dirtiest crop”.

While organic cotton farming (less than 1% of all cotton and dwindling) seeks to solve these problems, organic certifications are not a guarantee because of the exploitation of loopholes that have allowed falsified documents. Even being GOTS-certified organic does not mean it actually is. Organic cotton also leads to resource issues. Since it’s a rare commodity, the overall lower yield can result in more land, water, and energy to produce the same amount of cotton, as well as higher greenhouse gas emissions.

While not organic, the Better Cotton Initiative supposedly seeks to help bridge the sustainable gap between the two by making improvements, but BCI cotton, too, has come under fire for paying more lip service to consumers than anything else.

The most sustainable type of cotton is recycled cotton, which receives an “A” rating from Made-By. It’s made from post-industrial and post-consumer waste and production uses less water and energy than organic cotton.

Lastly, if cotton is “regenerative”, it means it is bio-dynamic and fosters an entire natural ecosystem. When cotton is regenerative or organic, it can biodegrade safely. The same doesn’t hold for recycled cotton as it may have been made with toxic chemicals during its first life.

Let’s tackle the big question: is rayon more sustainable than cotton? Or vice versa?

Really, the answer is either or neither. Clear as cotton seeds?

Both rayon and cotton begin life as natural fibers, and both are associated with heavy chemical use. Each has its own pros and cons, and it depends on what kind of rayon and cotton we’re talking about.

• Rayon vs cotton: The Higg Materials Sustainabili ty Index ranks rayon as more sustainable than conventional cotton.

• Rayon vs organic cotton: Higg ranks rayon as less sustainable than recycled, regenerative, or organic cotton.

• Rayon vs cotton vs modal & lyocell: Sustainably-made modal and lyocell top both rayon and conventional cotton (and perhaps even organic cotton, considering the recent questions surrounding it). Especially if you opt for something made from TENCEL™ clothing brands.

• Bamboo rayon vs cotton: Bamboo rayon can also be produced in a closed-loop manner, but because there is no one reputable maker of bamboo rayon, it’s harder to tell whether “sustainable bamboo” claims are legit or as green(washed) as the bamboo itself.

While there is no definitive answer as to whether rayon or cotton is more sustainable, we can say with certainty that both are better than synthetic fabrics.

Even when cotton is at its dirtiest, it’s still not as dirty as the petroleum-based resources needed to produce plastic-derived synthetics like nylon and polyester. If you’re comparing rayon vs polyester vs cotton, polyester should be your last choice—unless it’s recycled and uses fabrics or plastic bottles already in existence.

Otherwise, as far as rayon fabric vs cotton is concerened, there is no quick fix for what fabric conclusively has the least negative impact. It all depends. The best advice we can give is to opt for organic and regenerative cotton fibers and closed-loop manufactured rayon, which will ultimately contribute to a healthier planet for us all.