What is Superwashing Wool and Why Do We Do It?
Superwashing is the process of chemically treating and applying a thin resin coat to wool fibers. Very much like the scaled cuticle of human hair under a microscope, when magnified the fine strands that comprise wool fiber are made up of a layer of outer scale. When these scales hook and bind together it causes the wool to draw up and shrink locking up in the familiar mats we call "felting."
While felting can be delightful when it's intentional, it can be much less pleasant when discovering the shrunken, felted mess of your freshly knit sweater accidentally thrown through a wash and dry cycle by a well-meaning loved one. This is where superwash treatments come in handy. Using some form of chlorine, water baths, and a small amount of synthetic resin, wool can be treated and made resistant to felting and, thus, shrinkage as well. It even becomes machine safe to a degree.
That of course leads us to our next topic and, quite likely, one of the main reasons you're here.
The Controversy and Criticisms: Where They Come From and the Facts Without the Alarm
It's everywhere you look if you're an eco-conscious crafter looking for easy care, natural, renewable yarns and fibers to work with:
Don't use Superwash Wool!
Easy care wool is completely unsustainable! It wrecks the water supply!
Superwash sheds microplastics!
It's awful for the environment- full stop!
How true is that really? Well, like most conversations there's quite a bit of nuance to consider. There are legitimate concerns to consider, but it's more about shopping smart than blackballing an entire market. Let's break down the concerns first.
Chlorine
We all know that chlorine, liquid or precipitate or gas, isn't great. It's a dangerous and harsh chemical, hard to store, hard to transport, and expensive maintain and handle correctly. There's no denying that, but it's also still a commonly used household product- from cleaning wipes and laundry bleach to swimming pools.
The Hercosett method, what is currently used to superwash wool, can use a gas-based chlorination method or liquid based and this can be done in 3 ways. Companies can use chlorine gas, liquid chlorine, or compound chlorine using a mixture of chemicals combining into a water bath. The risks to the environment and to employees vary by method and by mitigation factors offered by the manufacturer.
Waste Water and AOX
Chlorination leads into the next concern often mentioned- waste water. The Hercosett process uses multiple waterbaths to treat, neutralize, and then resin coat the wool top during superwashing. Naturally, this means that something is left behind in the water used. What happens to it is very real and reasonable concern especially in this modern day where places like Flint, MI and reservation lands in the Dakotas are still recovering from tainted water.
While the resin itself is nontoxic and the levels of unused chlorine are low, what everyone is worried about is something called "absorbable organic halisades" or AOX. AOX is the resulting byproducts that breakdown and potentially find their way into the ground and ground water after the superwashing process resulting from resin coating. Thankfully, it is not an issue that is unmitigable by responsible companies.
Microplastics and biodegradability
From resin into the greatest fear of the petroleum era: microplastics and the never-ending landfill. One of the big concerns I noticed doing research was that superwash wools shed microplastics not only when they degrade at the pace of frozen molasses in an Antarctic winter, but with every wash as well. Speaking of post-office speed decomposition, that is the other issue. Many express that the resin coat also causes a decreased speed of decomposition causing discarded superwash wool clothing to fester away, shedding for years in landfills.
Now that we've seen the concerns, let's talk about some realities. None of these concerns are entirely unfounded, but none of them are a death sentence on the sustainability on easy-care wools either.
For example, the chlorination process for producing a single lot of superwashed wool takes less than the average swimming pool. With wastewater and AOX, under proper regulation and with mitigations like recycling systems or appropriate connections to waste treatment facilities enviromental impacts are dramatically lessened. Finally, a new study is actually showing that superwash wools did not shed microplastics at all and are unlikely to, as well as showing superwashed wool biodegrading faster than untreated wool under the same conditions.
As a bonus fun fact- I'll also offer up what I found in regard to petroleum/oil and its relation to the superwash process. It's fairly well known that 8% of petroleum goes into the plastics industry, which does include the synthetics industry for garments and textiles such as the Hercosett resin. The resin used is a biodegradable polyamide-chlorahydrin and its primary use isn't for superwashing- or even in textiles. It's actually used mostly in the paper and pulp industry for things like binding layers of paper towels, making teabags, in diapers, and even in coffee filters!
In the end, it boils down mostly to awareness. Where is your superwash wool coming from? What are the regulations where it's being treated? Is the manufacturer open with its efforts and research to mitigate negative effects on the environment and on its employees and local families? Wool is still a renewable resource and when manufactured responsibly, the potential effects on the environment drop dramatically- especially as studies continue to push forward. Superwash wool is not a sustainability villain and can be a part of a responsible, and eco-conscious household.
The Benefits of Superwash Wool
So where does that leave you and this expanded world of fiber? The path is wide open to wherever your crafty mind can take you. Superwashed wool is known for its extra soft, smooth texture and slight sheen when compared to other wools of the same micron count. It's easy to spin and takes on dye more readily, requiring less water, heat, and product on average than untreated wool while achieving a more even, vibrant color. The price point for this treated wool is also often lower, while still being good quality wool like it's untreated counterpart.
Then there's everyone's favorite thing about it for finished items: it's durability and washability. As sturdy and durable as untreated wool and still capable of multiple wears between washes as it retains most of wool's natural properties, superwash wool can go right in your washing machine. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3. Machine wash gentle, tumble dry low, and your favorite socks and jumper are ready to go as fast as your machine can run. No more wringing, rolling, blocking, and waiting for days.
Superwash Wool at Meridian Mill House- with Chargeurs Wool USA
In the end, it's always up to each of us to decide what's best. However, hopefully treated wools look less like an enemy and more like another fiber just waiting for the right kind of project. Before we part ways for the month, I'd like to take a look at Superwash fibers and yarns here at the Mill House and the company who treats ours- Chargeurs Wool, USA out of South Carolina.
I know many of you are familiar with our Non-Superwash lines of fiber and yarn like the Rodanthe, Jockey's Ridge, Coquina Beach, and Knotts Island, but we also have some fantastic Superwash lines as well. Fibers like Banner Elk, Charlotte, and Happy Valley, as well as yarns like our Foothills, Gastonia worsted, and Little Switzerland.
We work with Chargeurs Wool, USA to bring you these great products because we trust their company and process to bring us the quality you deserve. They use a compounding process that ensures they never store or transport chlorine or chlorine gas and 98% of that compounded chlorine is used in the first step of the process, during which the yarn is in the chlorinated water bath for under 10 seconds.
Because they use this method, any AOX produced by the process is contained wholly to the wastewater produced. Due to the compounding, the AOX is monochlorinated and can be broken down and degraded. This is monitored by testing incoming and outgoing water from the wastewater plant that they maintain for their facility under EPA regulations. They are an excellent illustration of how production of superwash fiber does not have to be purely detrimental.
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