DIVE DEEPER:

• Cellulose is the most abundant organic polymer on Earth. It was first discovered and isolated in 1837, and early synthetic cellulose-based products developed in the late 19th and early 20th century include celluloid, rayon, cellophane and acetate.

• Cellulose is primarily used to make Paper, which typically contains approximately 90-99% cellulose. In its earliest guise, paper was made from cloth fibres. However, wood became the main feedstock in the mid-19th century. Over 400 million tonnes of paper and paperboard are produced each year, more than half of which is supplied by China, the United States and Japan – the top three paper producing nations.

• Natural cellulosic fibres, such as cotton, flax, hemp, jute, bamboo and ramie, have been in use for millennia. Cotton fibres are 88%-97% cellulose, while bamboo is around 73.83% cellulose.

• Unlike natural cellulosic fabrics, which are made mechanically, MMCFs are made by dissolving cellulose material – usually wood pulp – in a chemical solution, extruding the pulp and spinning it into fibres. Production has doubled over the past 30 years, reaching an annual production volume of 7.1 million tonnes pre-pandemic, dropping to approximately 6.5 million tonnes subsequently.

• As a natural feedstock, cellulose is an ideal source for biodegradable or compostable products. Lenzing’s modal netting and lyocell tea bags are compostable; NatureFlex cellulose films are TÜV-certified for home and industrial composting and meet EU standard EN13432 for industrial compostability; and paper and paperboard packaging is widely recyclable and, generally, benignly biodegradable (if not coated).

• MMCFs are also broadly considered to be biodegradable. Tencel fibres are certified by TÜV Austria Belgium NV as compostable under industrial, home, soil and marine conditions – but this can be compromised when synthetic fibres are added.

• However, the production of cellulose-based materials comes with potential environmental impacts to consider. CanopyStyle estimates that more than 200 million trees from forests, including ancient and endangered forests, are logged every year to manufacture MMCFs, while three billion trees are logged each year for paper packaging.

• The EPA estimates paper can be recycled five to seven times before the fibres become too short. Recycling one tonne of paper can save 17 trees and, although rates declined slightly during the COVID-19 pandemic, paper is the most recycled material in Europe, while cardboard is the most recycled packaging material in the US.

• Making MMCFs, paper and cellulose products can be polluting, releasing harmful chemicals and gases including hydrogen sulfide, sodium hydroxide and sulfur dioxide. Materials such as lyocell, however, are made using a closed-loop process which recycles water and reuses solvents at a recovery rate of more than 99%. Futurama, which produces 65% of the world’s cellulosic films, projects a reduction of terrestrial, marine and freshwater eutrophication of between 30-40% by 2023.

• Some producers are even moving away from chemicals entirely. Finland-based Spinnova treats its pulp mechanically, creating a "micro fibrillated cellulose" which improves in structure with each recycling process.

• According to Fashion for Good, if 25% of cotton and rayon waste was converted into regenerated MMCF, the need for virgin wood fibre could be eradicated. Less than 1% of MMCF is currently made from recycled or alternative feedstocks, but innovations within the space include Infinna, Circulose, Evrnu and Texloop, all of which are derived from textile waste.