Why an EU-wide cotton ban would not make sense

The New Year is just a few days old and an interesting debate already ensued – a supposed ban on cotton that the EU wants to enforce by 2030. One might indeed think April Fool’s Day had fallen on January 1st this year, because an EU-wide ban on cotton is neither feasible nor advisable. “There is no EU legislation banning cotton, and there are no plans to ban cotton in the future,” a media spokesperson of the EU Commission wrote, according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

What does exist is the EU’s Ecodesign Regulation, which is part of the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI), adopted as part of the European Green Deal. It also deals with the recycled content that textiles will have to contain in the future; however, no concrete details are expected before the end of 2026. This also includes the recycled content that cotton will have to contain, but this has not yet been determined.

Recycled content

The argument was made in some articles that currently only 20 percent recycled content is possible for cotton. But this is outdated: The Swiss company Säntis Textiles, based in Singapore, for example, recycles cotton through its mechanical and fibre-friendly recycling technology RCO100 and is the first company worldwide to produce high-quality, 100 percent recycled cotton. This involves long-staple fibres and GRS-certified yarns (Ne 30/1).

Water consumption

Among the other myths surrounding the raw material cotton is water consumption. “Misconceptions about cotton’s water usage persistently circulate across both traditional and social media platforms, despite concerted efforts to rectify this misinformation with scientific evidence. Water is an important and renewable resource, and cotton growers strive to use it responsibly,” explains Jesse Daystar, chief sustainability officer at communications agency Cotton Inc.

“Most U.S. cotton is produced using only natural rainfall. With just one acre-inch of rain, modern cotton varieties tend to yield at least 50 pounds of lint and 75 pounds of seed – enough to make more than 170 t-shirts and feed more than 10 cows,” adds Daystar, citing figures from the US Department of Agriculture.

Carbon footprint

Furthermore, cotton is a carbon sink which, according to Keshav Kranthi, a scientist at the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), emits an average of about 1.6 tonnes of CO2 per hectare annually worldwide, but sequesters 11.21 tonnes per hectare from the atmosphere through the various parts of the plant (fibres, seeds, stems and roots).

Considering the many unique properties of cotton, such as its skin-friendliness and low allergy potential as a natural fibre, its resilience, absorbency and breathability, and the fact that it is a renewable resource, it becomes clear that a ban on cotton would not make any sense.

“Cotton has an important role to play in the fibre mix we consume. It has a whole host of advantages and is much closer to a circular economy than polyester. And in terms of environmental conditions, if we learn to dye correctly and behave in a more environmentally friendly way with regard to the chemicals we use, then it's a product that will probably be easier to integrate into the circular economy,” Dr. Stephan Weidner-Bohnenberger, expert in fibres and fabrics and Head of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Institutes of Textile and Fibre Research (DITF-MR), pointed out in an interview with FashionUnited.

“I see no reason to abandon this fibre,” adds Weidner-Bohnenberger. “We just need to reduce consumption instead of pursuing the former motto ‘we can only thrive with growth’. That is outdated; a rethink is necessary.”

A ban on certain fibres generally makes little sense for the fibre and fabric expert. “It is about improving what one did wrong at the beginning. We have to tame the fibres at the outset; they have an influence right through to the final product. And if we now introduce other fibres, the final product must also be able to cope with that. And if we, as the producers of the final product, learn where our challenges lie and how to eliminate problems and find the root causes, then it will become more well-rounded,” concludes Weidner-Bohnenberger.