Top Tweets for #CHOOSEWOOL

A wool fibre is a protein helix. The helix creates natural crimp. The crimp traps air. Trapped air insulates. The fibre also absorbs up to 30% of its own weight in moisture vapour before feeling wet, and releases it slowly. This is what regulates temperature. The moisture absorption is exothermic: the fibre generates heat as it absorbs. In wet and cold conditions, wool warms as it gets damp. Polyester, in wet and cold conditions, conducts heat away from the body. The outdoor industry knows this. Serious mountaineers and military cold-weather operations still specify wool base layers. The fast fashion industry replaced wool with polyester because polyester is cheaper to produce and easier to market in bright colours. The consumer paid less for a worse product. The ocean paid the rest.

"Vegan leather" is plastic. "Vegan wool" is plastic. "Vegan fur" is plastic. Every wash cycle releases microplastics into the water. Every year it degrades slightly and releases more. At end of life it will sit in landfill for four hundred years or end up in the ocean. The sheep, meanwhile, grows a new coat every year, requires it removed, and produces a fibre that has been biodegradable since the Neolithic. But yes. The sheep is the environmental problem. The sheep, standing in the Lake District in the rain, growing renewable fibre from grass. The sheep.