Is Silk Eco-Friendly?

Dear Planet Green,

I love the look and feel of silk, and I try to buy as many pieces made from it as I can—but then I realized I've never thought about the eco-impact of it. Silk's a natural fabric, so that makes it green, right?

—Silkworm in Sacramento

Dear Silkworm,

You're partly right—because silk is a natural fabric, it does have a lot going for it: it's renewable and biodegradable, for starters. But there's a lot of rough stuff that goes into making those smooth fabrics. Unless you live in Asia or India, there's a nearly-non-existent chance that your silk was made locally, and many of the companies that produce silk are based in countries that don?t require fair working conditions. As Warren mentioned in his TreeHugger post on silk, getting the smoothness means washing the silk fibers in an alkaline bath—which can reduce the weight of the silk by as much as 20 percent, inspiring some producers to add weight with tin-phosphate-silica salt. And since silk isn't the most durable fabric, you need to pay extra attention to how you care for it—or risk trashing it with a minimum of wear.

Keep in mind, too, that many silk producers kill the moths by boiling them alive, so the fabric doesn't get a high grade for animal consciousness—though some non-violent silk companies, like Ahimsa Peace Silk, use cocoons that the moth has already abandoned (and mark up the prices accordingly).