The difficulty of correctly assessing the sustainability of cotton

Cotton has been the world's most popular clothing fibre for years. Surveys confirm this time and again. However, cotton is no longer the most produced clothing fibre. Its market share in the total fibre market is now only around 20 percent. This was not always the case. In the 1960s, its share was about 70 percent, and at the end of the 1980s it was still almost 50 percent. The year 2000 marked a turning point for cotton. Since the turn of the millennium, the chemical fibre polyester has been the most produced fibre in the world, with a market share of 57 percent today, as data from the industry organisation Textile Exchange shows.