The Damaging Environmental Impact of Wool !?
The WELAN flock on Tiree - Kelp saying good morning
Does wool have a damaging impact on the environment?
In short NO. it’s not the wool, It’s not the sheep and It’s not the burps. It’s industrialisation, It’s globalisation and It’s the trend of putting profit before people and the place they call home.
When you care for any animal – especially our adorable little sheep – you can't help but care for the environment. It's no longer an abstract – the natural world – distant and removed from your life in the city. Rather, it's a living, breathing reality. The environment bleats at you every morning and snuggles down to sleep at night. It's why I was so surprised to read an article by PETA UK, titled, 'The Damaging Environmental Impact of Wool.' From the first line, I was taken aback: "Wool production is a nightmare for the living planet.", it declared. I thought wool production was a part of the living planet – our flock of sheep certainly thinks so!
But, determined to be open-minded – and to always look for the truth – I thought I'd dig a little deeper.
Does wool production have a damaging impact on the environment? There is no simple answer. However, if we are genuinely going to make things better, we shouldn't be turning to single-season synthetic and environmentally-damaging fabrics. We should return to traditional, sustainable, and long-lasting materials like wool!
We all want to see a cleaner, greener, and more eco-friendly world. We know that sheep farming and crofting has its problems. But the solutions aren't polyester or nylon – they include sustainable, loving, ethical sheep keeping. Wool products are beautifully made, look amazing, and come from an environmental source. That's a fact!
Does wool have a damaging impact on the environment? Or is there more to this provocative headline than meets the eye?
The Damaging Environmental Impact of Wool, a few words that really grab your attention and get you thinking. Especially when you care for any animal – even more so when it’s our adorable little flock of orphaned sheep – We can't help but care for the environment. It's no longer an abstract – the natural world – distant and removed from today’s life in the city. Rather, it's a living, breathing reality.
The environment bleats at us every morning and snuggles down to sleep at night. It's why I was so surprised to read an article by PETA UK, titled, 'The Damaging Environmental Impact of Wool.' From the first line, I was taken aback: "Wool production is a nightmare for the living planet.", it declared. I thought wool production was a part of the living planet – our little flock of sheep certainly thinks so!
With more of us becoming environmentally conscious and reducing waste, I knew it was essential to find the answer. After all, no one wants to be responsible for damaging the environment – least of all those living on an island and proud of their ethical credentials.
The main claim of the article is that sheep produce excessive methane – around 30 litres per sheep per day. Because sheep are ruminants – meaning they chew and digest their food over again – they do belch out methane. But the article doesn't stop there. It continues to claim a litany of destructive environmental practices. Poor sheep farming, or crofting in Scotland, they say can lead to excrement seeping into rivers and causing so-called 'dead zones' in rivers and oceans via eutrophication. Wool production, it is claimed, also causes deforestation, releases toxic chemicals into the environment, and is cruel. That’s a lot of blame placed at the hooves of the flock.
Noah’s winter coat being checked before it goes for a hand wash.
Is our wool bad for the environment? PETA UK certainly thinks so! In fact, according to the article, you'd think saving sheep from slaughter was one of the worst environmental practices you could imagine.
not all wool production is the same. Just as vegan products can be branded environmentally friendly but could contain palm oil or almonds – which cause vast destruction of virgin rainforests – it doesn't mean all vegan products are bad for the environment.
Not all wool production is the same. Just as vegan products can be branded environmentally friendly but could contain palm oil or almonds – which cause vast destruction of virgin rainforests – it doesn't mean all vegan products are bad for the environment. Wool is no different. As with all human endeavours, there are good and bad. Yes, some sheep farms and crofts are poorly managed and spew toxic chemicals into the environment, and they need to be held to account in the same way vegan brands that are increasing deforestation do. That doesn't mean all people looking after sheep and using their wool act this way or that all Vegan brands are destroying natural habitats. There are over 1 billion sheep on planet Earth, including our small flock of orphans. They're not all being dipped in toxic chemicals or responsible for deforestation.
Let's go through each point, and discuss why we believe wool isn't all bad for the environment.
Sheep and methane production
Toxic chemicals and sheep
Wool production is it a sustainable practice?
Is looking after sheep cruel?
“Eco-friendly” chemically made fabrics can harm the environment
1. Sheep and methane production
Sheep do belch – we don't deny it. We're a little too familiar with the concept. But again, that doesn't mean all sheep produce the same amount of methane, nor is methane bad by default. Let's explain.
I came across multiple studies citing the terrible nature of methane production from animals during my research. However, digging a little deeper reveals some discrepancies. For example, one study found that sheep production in Canada led to a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission intensity 27% higher than in northern England. Plus, the methane released only stays in the atmosphere for twelve years – CO2 sticks around for centuries!
Moreover, some farmers and crofters have actively tried to reduce their methane output. In New Zealand, for example (an area singled out by PETA), the sheep and beef sector use three-quarters of the land area they did in 1990 with half the animals – yet produces just as much product.
A recently published study, the result of a two decades long sheep study carried out by scientists at the James Hutton Institute in North Ronaldsay, revealed that seaweed in sheep feed significantly reduces the animals’ methane emissions.
Those are all steps in the right direction.
2. Toxic chemicals and sheep
Contrary to PETA's assertion, we don't use any toxic chemicals on our sheep. Dipping sheep is an old practice to remove ticks, lice, and blowflies that could harm the sheep's health and was compulsory until the late 1980s. In the UK, the government did not reveal the true damage to sheep and farmers' health.
Since then, the practice has become strictly regulated when it does take place in the UK. To dip a single sheep, farmers and crofters must have a licence – with specialists most likely to handle the job. It's led to a significant reduction in environmental damage today.
Still we’d like to see it replaced completely with more natural and holistic treatments which are more sustainable in the long run. For example, we use neem oil for insect control, a natural derivative of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica), an evergreen variety native to India. A lot less toxic, organic and biodegradable.
3. Wool production is it a sustainable practice?
We encourage everyone to make our products last as long as possible, in fact, we’d rather sell less if it means our hats are used for longer – but many many years down the line, when the day comes that your hat is a little too holey and threadbare, wool biodegrades. Meaning you can add your wool to your compost and return it to the earth. Wool is a material that lives very happily in the circular economy.
But there's more – wool textile fabrics tend to be washed less frequently and at lower temperatures (it actually prefers to be aired and is naturally dirt repellent) – resulting in reduced greenhouse gas production. Moreover, sheep are often raised on bits of land we can't otherwise use. So it can be concluded that wool consumes less energy and has a smaller carbon footprint than many petrochemical made textiles.
That's not to say all sheep everywhere are farmed or crofted sustainably, ethically, and environmentally, but small, local, lasting sheep keeping communities are. There's no better way to clothe yourself.
4. Is looking after sheep cruel?
Wool production doesn’t have to be cruel. Our flock on the Isle of Tiree – a little Scottish rock in the Atlantic Ocean – began after we saved an orphan lamb from the dinner table. We knew what we had to do. Create a sustainable and ethical artisan slow fashion brand that did away with our modern throwaway culture. At the same time, give our growing flock of orphaned sheep the best and longest life we can.
Every single sheep in our flock is given the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. If you ever visited our windswept corner of the world, you might be a little jealous. Our sheep are very much at home and loved.
And that's the keyword – home. Our sheep eat the grass on the island and produce a never-ending supply of wool. The yearly haircut is necessary to keep them comfortable in the summer.
Another word that's not often brought up in such conversations is love. Just as you can't care for an animal and not think about the environment, so too is it impossible to hand rear sheep from birth and not fall in love. We spend our days giving our sheep the best possible treatment. And we enable our little flock to live their long lives in peace and tranquillity.
We wouldn't have it any other way.
5. Eco-friendly chemically made fabrics can harm the environment
When people say wool is bad for the environment, we say compared to what? Cotton – which guzzles vast quantities of water? Or how about acrylics and polyester produced from oil? According to the PETA UK article, polyester is one of the most sustainable materials – yet comes from an unsustainable source.
Even worse, polyester textiles constitute a significant source of microplastics, causing untold harm to the environment. Microplastics are clogging up our food chains – and even triggering damage to our lungs. In contrast, wool is 100% biodegradable.
The HIGG material sustainability index (MSI - the apparel industry's tool to measure and score the environmental impacts of materials) also only accounts for the front-end supply chain up to the shop shelf. But wool can last for generations. In fact, wool lasts double or even quadruple the lifespan of synthetic fabrics on average.
Conclusion
It’s never as simple as attention grabbing headlines such as PETA’s “The Damaging Environmental Impact of Wool“ Or other large organisations would have you believe. It feels - to us - like critical and holistic thinking has been lost in favour of the use of simplistic - possibly inaccurate - information that may not tell the story in its entirety.
We, like you want to live in a world that is good for all and for many generations to come. But, we feel turning our collective backs on simple materials found in nature can only be bad for all. Why? Because they tend to be replaced by petrochemical derived substitutes.
We believe a healthy balance of both may be a better solution.
It’s our thinking that responsibly sourced wool and wool products, combined with transparent tracking of wool origin would be preferable to fibers derived from chemical compounds especially petrochemicals. Also, when talking about the environmental impact of a “Thing”, those making statements must include the entire lifecycle of the fibers - From cradle to grave.
But that’s just our thoughts on things.
