A team of scientists in Australia is working on a project to develop the next generation cotton fibre – which could feature many of the properties of synthetics, such as being stretchy, non-creasing and even waterproof, while retaining its natural fibre feel.
The research is being undertaken by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and is first working on better understanding what determines the length, strength, and thickness of cotton fibres.
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“We’re looking into the structure of cotton cell walls and harnessing the latest tools in synthetic biology to develop the next generation cotton fibre,” CSIRO scientist Dr Madeline Mitchell says.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of different cotton plants growing; some with really long thin fibres, others with short, woolly fibres.”
Dr Mitchell adds: “Cotton often gets a bad rap environmentally but it is a natural, renewable fibre unlike synthetics which are made with petrochemicals.”
Synthetics like polyester and nylon are coming under increased scrutiny for shedding thousands of tiny microfibres of material during the wash process. These are not degradable and can build up in the food chain.
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By GlobalDataCotton also sheds fibres, but these are biodegradable and break down naturally in the environment CSIRO explains.
Through more than 30 years of improved cotton breeding using GM techniques, CSIRO and partners, Cotton Seed Distributors (CSD), is credited with reducing insecticide use in cotton growing by 85% and cutting herbicide use by 60%. Australian cotton is also said to be the most water efficient in the world.
“Australia produces three times more cotton per drop of water than any other country,” Dr Mitchell says.
As well as environmental reasons, there is a strong commercial imperative for improving the versatility of cotton.
“If we can produce next generation cotton then we can take a large market share of the synthetics industry and that’s a win not just for Australia’s $2.5bn industry but also for the environment,” CSD managing director, Peter Graham, explains.
“We need to stay ahead of our competitors, both in cotton but also synthetics.”
In 1995, synthetics constituted about half of the global fibre market and by 2015 it had risen to 77%. The overall growth in the size of the fibre industry means that while the cotton market hadn’t shrunk, it also hadn’t increased a significant amount.
The next generation cotton research is part of CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform, a $13m investment in science that applies engineering principles to biology. SynBio projects aim to provide societal benefits and opportunities for a wide range of industries.
In Australia there are just over 1,200 cotton farms across the country, and in an average year, Australia’s cotton growers produce enough cotton to clothe 500 million people. Australia exports $2.7bn worth of raw cotton each year.
