Mukilteo

Mukilteo means "good camping ground" in the Snohomish dialect. Located on Puget Sound north of Seattle, Mukilteo was one of the first suburban cities to ban plastic bags.

Viscose from bamboo gives this fabric a silken look and feel. It drapes beautifully. We think it would be terrific for baby blankets, especially since it's Oeko-Tex certified so you can use it without worry. But it's also great for drapery, bedding, dresses, lots of uses.Don't use it for upholstery, though, because bamboo viscose pills easily unless it is impregnated or coated with a plastic resin. The resin used is often acrylic, something you do not want to encourage the production of or bring into your home.

The Japanese yarn manufacturer that supplied Mukilteo's yarns developed a new viscose¹ production method to turn the bamboo into yarn that has a substantially lighter environmental footprint than previous viscose production processes. Manufacturing viscose requires use of a sulfuric acid bath; so, although the resulting yarn is non-toxic (ours is Oeko-Tex 100 certified, and safe enough to eat), the waste could create an environmental hazard.

Our manufacturer uses bacteria and enzymes to neutralize the sulfuric acid, and thereby returns wastewater to the ecosystem that meets stringent Japanese drinking water standards. There is some out gassing of the sulfuric acid to the air, air pollution. As demand for our bamboo grows, our spinner will be able to afford to address this issue as well. All in all, even with the slight outgassing into the air, we believe our bamboo is a very important addition to the world's textile set.

A dedicated conservationist owns the small mill in Japan where these yarns are woven into fabric. In his state-of-the-art mill, each step of the process has been carefully analyzed to ensure that it is environmentally sound, for example, in 1995, he began treating his wastewater to be compliant with environmental regulations of the Seto Inland Sea, among the strictest in the world.

Our partner has been among the first to try new green processes, such as using ozone to bleach fabric (in which the only by product is oxygen).

Although there is no wind generator on the premises, he buys wind power from a wind farm north of the mill, the first medium size enterprise in Japan to do so. This results in a reduction of approximately 370g of carbon dioxide per yard of fabric produced, or 20 pounds of carbon dioxide per 25 yards of fabric (about the amount needed to cover an average sofa).

¹People are often not familiar with the fiber, viscose. For an explanation of what viscose is, click here.