WHAT IS COTTON?

Cotton is a versatile fabric. It can be used for t-shirts to dress to jeans. Cotton is considered to be one of the most important fabrics that is used everyday.

There are three types of cotton: Extra long staples, long stapes and short staple.

Extra long staples:

Characteristics:

• Thin

• long

• glossy fiber

Main Uses:

• light weight fabric

• shirts

PROS OF COTTON:

1. STRONG

2. SOFT

3. STRETCHY

4. BREATHABLE

5. INSULATING

6. EASY TO DYE

CONS OF COTTON:

1. SHRINKS

2. WRINKLES

3. CAN STAIN EASILY - BECAUSE ITS VERY ABSORBENT

4. NOT VERY STRONG

STATISTICS:

• The largest cotton grower in the world is China, followed by India.

• 2.5% of the world mass is used to grow cotton

• At the moment 25M tonnes of cotton is produced a year

• Korea, Russia and Japan are the largest non-producing countries to important cotton

THE CONTROVERSY OF COTTON:

• Cotton requires a large amount of water, it requires 20,000 litres of water to produce 1kg of cotton.

• Cotton is chemically dependant, probably the most reliant crop. It requires fertilisers, insecticides and herbicides.