The eco guide to cleaner cotton | Lucy Siegle

Growing cotton is a dirty business, but it's not the only option in a more eco-conscious market

Cotton seems spotless. It grows as a fluffy white plant and is processed into towels and flannels - clean stuff. Upsettingly, it has a lengthy ecological rap sheet that means it is the filthiest of all fibres. While it covers just 2.5% of the planet's total agricultural area, the cotton crop uses 7% of all pesticides and 16% of all insecticides. There are entire chemical companies making neurotoxic formulas just to support this crop. And it takes nearly 4,000 litres of water to make a single pair of jeans.

It's almost enough to make us yearn for the entirely polyester wardrobes of the 1970s or even drive us to hemp - a fibre often touted as the solution, though in reality it is blended with cotton.