Yes! You’ve just received a message to say that your new DILLING cotton products are ready to collect. Did you choose them for their good quality or because you want to avoid harmful chemicals in your daily life?
At DILLING, we have been manufacturing cotton underwear for the majority of the company’s 100 years. It is not as simple as it sounds, but we have done some finetuning as our experience and knowledge has increased. One major adjustment we made was replacing cotton with organic cotton where possible. There are several reasons for this.
Firstly, this choice is based on consideration for the environment and our employees. Conventional cotton uses quite a few pesticides and insecticides; in fact, the cotton industry accounts for 25 percent of the total insecticide consumption, as well as 10 percent of pesticide consumption, despite cotton only accounting for 2.5 percent of farmland. A major problem associated with these poisons is the fact many of them are extremely harmful to both humans and the environment, especially when handled without knowledge of their consequences. The majority of the time, cotton production takes place in third world countries, where pesticides are usually applied with a backpack pump and no safety equipment. According to WHO, at least one million individuals are hospitalised with acute pesticide poisoning every year, of which 20,000 die. Notably, 99% of these deaths take place in third world countries. This a concerning figure, and not something DILLING wants to contribute to. Therefore, we decided the majority of our cotton products needed to be organic.
In addition to avoiding these negative consequences by purchasing organic cotton, there are more advantages. The cotton DILLING purchases is picked manually and we only pick the tip of the cotton plant. Conventional cotton is harvested mechanically, which includes the stalks, therefore the final product is of a lower quality than organic cotton.
Once the organic cotton has been through the ginning, spinning, and knitting process, it comes to Denmark, where it is treated at our Nordic Swan Eco labelled dyeworks, L.P.Hansen, in Bredsten near Vejle. Here, the cotton undergoes an environmentally friendly enzyme treatment known as ‘Bio Polish’. This treatment process gives the cotton an even greater softness, makes the material hang nicely, and prevents the ends of the fibres shrink and the fabric pilling (shedding lint). Therefore, our organic cotton products last a long time.
