Material differences - what it takes to make our product and a comment on the eco ethical fair trade market

Ecology and environmentalism are fashionable points of focus at the moment which is great - but this awareness has fuelled a great deal of mis-information, and so in this section, we go some way to explain our design and manufacturing choices for putting together our product. A product labelled as 'organic and natural and pure and.... etc' may indeed be made from organic cotton, but if it is produced in huge volumes, then perhaps it is worth questioning whether that organic textile (the mainstay of the product's marketing) has been harvested by people on a pittance, flown from where it was grown to a sweat shop in Bangladesh where it is made into product for pittance, and then flown to distribution points around the world to be sold to the end consumer, who statistically throws away 40% of their clothing and food and.....?

Our range of products are designed and made as 'investment purchases' - gifts that lasts longer than clothing (which will be grown out of) or made of plastic (which will break) or which is 'fashionable' (which will also be 'grown out of'). Our product is ethically handmade (see our ethical manufacturing page on this website) in every true sense of the phrase. Our textiles are certified and as clean as we can get them, and we ship our product to our distributorships by sea wherever possible.

Manufacturing ecologically sound product is extremely difficult to undertake in this day and age when cheap consumerism is so prevalent. By choosing the textiles we use in the manufacture of our product, we have weighed up the pros and cons of each one, and listened to customer demands. It seems it is nearly impossible to manufacture product that is completely pure, but by making the choices we have, we hope to contribute - in some small way - to an ecologically sounder way of producing quality, affordable and long lasting product.

We hope the following information will help clarify some of the points discussed, and give you a better insight into our great little product range.

Cotton, polyester, rayon/viscose, lambswool, children's clothing, colours and eco washing

Cotton - unbleached and organic

Unbleached cotton is the cotton grown by conventional means, but which as a textile straight off the loom has been formed, but neither dipped in bleach to remove impurities, nor coloured or impregnated with chemicals and toxins.

Organic cotton uses fewer pesticides and is GM-free; farmers fertilise with manure and use natural pest deterrents. The problem of high levels of water consumption remains a problem, but most organic cotton is produced in areas where irrigation is not needed. Growing organic cotton also takes up more land because of lower yields. Organic standards for cotton include restrictions on chemicals used in processing, reductions in energy and waste, labelling specifications, and even requirements relating to materials used for accessories. Nearly half of all textiles are made from cotton.*

We use both unbleached and organic cotton in our products.

Polyester

Polyester is produced from oil, and nearly a third of all textiles are made from polyester. Although making polyester is pretty energy-intensive, the benefits of the fibre are the long life of the products that are made using it, and less energy is needed to dye it in the manufacturing process and to maintain it once it is used and then washed at home. Polyester has the huge advantage of neither needing land for crops nor using huge quantities of pesticides.*

Polyester does not easily breed bacteria, which is why we have chosen to fill our 3D products with this hygenic fibre.

Rayon / viscose

Rayon (or viscose) is actually a bi-product of wood, and so ensuring it is produced as a result of sustainable forest management is important.*

The viscose added to our felt is included to reinforce product stability and is sourced sustainably before being included in the manufacture of the base felt textile.

Lambswool [click here]

Almost all wool used in clothing for example comes from Merino sheep in Australia, reared specifically for their fleece rather than for their meat. The hotter climate means that Australian sheep have had to adapt to producing finer wool, as opposed to say British wool which is considered coarse and is used for carpets.*

The Noonoo lambswool textile is by definition 'organic' in the true sense of the word, although it is not certified as organic. Its composition includes the following: Wool - 50% carbon, 22-24% oxygen, 16-17% nitrogen, 7% hydrogen and 2-4% sulphur. Viscose content includes 40% carbon, 7% hydrogen and 53% oxygen, and is a natural by-product and polymer made from wood pulp.

Lambs are not dipped in pesticides or chemicals until they are 30 months old, which is why our felt is only made from 'early years' lambswool. This textile is exclusive to us, worldwide and patent pending.

Bamboo

Bamboo fibre is a kind of regenerated cellulose fiber, which is produced from raw materials of bamboo pulp. The pulp is first refined from bamboo through a process of hydrolysis-alkalization and multi-phase cleaning. It is then processed bamboo fibre.

Repeated tests have proven that this textile has has a strong durability, stability and tenacity, and that the thinness and paleness of bamboo fibre is similar to classic viscose. In addition, it owns high abrasion-proof capacity. Bamboo fibre spins nicely and this fibre is a natural cellulose fiber, which can an achieve natural degradation in the soil, and won't cause any pollution to the environment.

Bamboo has clinically proven antibacterial and anti-allergen qualities, which is why we are delighted to include this revolutionary new textile into our product range.

Silk

"Wild silks" are produced by caterpillars other than the mulberry silkworm and can be artificially cultivated. A variety of wild silks have been known and used in China, South Asia, and Europe since early times, but the scale of production was always far smaller than that of cultivated silks. They differ from the domesticated varieties in color and texture, and cocoons gathered in the wild usually have been damaged by the emerging moth before the cocoons are gathered, so the silk thread that makes up the cocoon has been torn into shorter lengths. Commercially reared silkworm pupae are used in the production of the silk we use for our products, allowing the whole cocoon to be unraveled as one continuous thread. This permits a much stronger cloth to be woven from the silk. Wild silks tend to be more difficult to dye than silk from the cultivated silkworm.

Silk is known to have temperature regulating properties, and is therefore ideal for use in products for children.

*source: Wikipedia

Children's clothing

Comic character motifs and designs on children's clothing are typically made from PVC, phthalates and other unpleasant chemicals.*

We only use freehand embroidered child art imagery to add a bit of colour and extra character to our product.

Up to 8,000 different chemicals can be used in the production and processing of textiles - for dyeing, treating, printing and finishing, making it one of the most polluting processes and industries on the plant. The global textile industry discharges 40-50,000 toness of dye into rivers and streams every year, as well as hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sales which is also used in the process. It takes between 16 and 20 litres of water to dye one t-shirt.

We do not use coloured textiles in any of our product

Manufacturing ecologically sound product is extremely difficult to undertake in this day and age when cheap consumerism is so prevalent. By choosing the textiles we use in the manufacture of our product, we have weighed up the pros and cons of each one, and listen to customer demands. It seems it is nearly impossible to manufacture product that is completely pure, but by making the choices we have, we hope to contribute - in some small way - to an ecologically sounder way of producing quality, affordable and long lasting product.

*source: the new green consumer guide - you can make a difference. Julia Hailes; Simon and Schuster UK

Packaging

our gift boxes are made from card sourced from sustainable, managed and FSC certified forests, and the acetate window on the gift boxes is made from certified compostable starch.

Eco measures

There are millions of people worldwide who use hot washes to get their laundry clean... its all too easy to get into the habit of turning the washing machine dial to 60°C, or even 90°C, and not think about the environmental impact of our collective energy consumption.

We recommend machine washing our products at 30°C, and air drying where possible.

Did you know that 90% of the energy used for washing your laundry goes into heating the water? The average washing machine is used 274 times a year - so that would mean 274 hassle-free chances to help the environment... washing at 30°C means fewer CO² emissions, so keeping your clothes and your product clean in this way, means less of contribution to climate change...

...invest in Noonoo as an ecologically sound product of the present and the future - 30°C will do it.