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Organic T Shirts

Organic T ShirtWhat is an organic T shirt?  It’s a T shirt composed of cotton that was grown through sustainable farming methods.  They do not use synthesized fertilizers or pesticides, and they practice farming methods that do not deplete the soil of all its nutrients.  For example, if a species of bug generally feeds on their crops, they harbor and encourage predators of that bug to live in their fields and prey on the pests.  By using natural methods of pest control, and by alternating animal and green manures as fertilizer, they reduce the negative impacts on the earth tremendously.  It’s easy to justify the benefits of using organic T shirts for your next project.  People want to be affiliated with groups that demonstrate globally responsible decision-making.  On that note, some organic T shirts are better than others.  At present, manufacturers only need to use 50% organic cotton to qualify it as an “organic” product- but some companies like Ultra Club only use 100% organic cotton for their organic t shirts.  If you plan to promote your next project as “organic” be sure to use an organic T shirt that is 100%, and read a little further about the inks available for decorating your product.

Recycled T Shirts

There are also recycled T shirts which are very new to the market.  Recycled T shirts come in two forms; either plastic-recycled T shirts, or cotton-recycled T shirts.  Plastic recycled t shirts are actually made from melted down plastic bottles that are transformed into yarn which is knit at a 40-50% ratio with other fibers.  The recycled bottle T shirt has been far more controversial than organic T shirts because theoretically once those bottles make it to the recycling center, they will definitely make it back to some sort of reclaim/reuse.  Plus, only about 30% of plastic bottles are currently making it into the recycling system.  Organic T shirts are an undisputable boon for the environment, and I believe recycled cotton T shirts are too.  This is how it works; apparel manufacturing yields fabric and trim waste, which is collected and sorted by color.  That waste is chopped into lint which is called shoddy.  The shoddy is then spun in yarn, and knit together with acrylic yarn to make 5.6 oz jersey fabric composed of 69% recycled material.  Unlike the T shirts made from recycled plastic bottles, the fabric is very soft and similar to organic t shirts.Organic T Shirt

Organic T Shirts

Organic T-shirts deserve eco-friendly prints.  There are many new inks available to screen printers that are earth-friendly.  If your program aims to be earth-friendly from start to finish, here are some suggestions.  Choose a light-colored garment and put a dark print on it.  To put an eco-friendly print on a T-shirt, you should use waterbased, PVC-free and phalate-free inks.  Waterbased inks are more difficult to work with than regular plastisol inks because they evaporate during the production process and tend to be slightly less reliable.  If you want to put a waterbased print on a dark T-shirt, you have to use a product called discharge first, which bleaches the dye out of the shirt under the image area.  As you can imagine, once you’re introducing a bleaching agent to this process- you are negating a lot of the good work you’ve done in choosing an organic t-shirt.  So, my suggestion is to pick a light colored organic T-shirt, and put a dark print on it.  Since the vast majority of silk-screen printing uses plastisol inks, please be sure to specially request Quantum One inks for your organic program to keep it eco-friendly.