The Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection notified the World Trade Organisation they would no longer accept shipments of 24 different types of plastic, including Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) among other industrial waste. This is the country’s aim to try to recycle domestic products and clean up their polluted environment. Local polyester plants are being notified that they either reduce pollution levels or face closure.

This is seen as good news to the US cotton market that has been extremely depressed since the last few years, as farmers have been producing the natural fibre at below the cost of production. The exponential increase in use of low cost petroleum-based fibres has sent the market for natural products into a tailspin since the last few years.

Since the past two years, the December 2018 cotton contract futures on the New York Board of Trade had gone below 60 cents per pound are now in the low 70’s, but there is still hope that it will go up to make production of the natural fibre profitable. Market indications reveal that over the next few years, consumers will shift from cheap polyesters to higher end natural and synthetic fibres.

PET, invented around 75 years ago, is made from crude oil. Approximately 60 per cent of PET made worldwide is turned into synthetic fibres and another 30 per cent is used to make plastic bottles. Those bottles can be recycled and spun into cheap polyester fibres.

There are higher-end polyesters, however, much of the polyester we seen in apparel is made from the cheaper PET. This process produces toxic chemicals, pollution and uses lots of fossil fuel energy which is an area of concern for the Chinese as they strive to clean up their environment. Post storms lashing US coastal cities, hurricanes, whiteflies and depressed markets, any straw is good enough to clutch at.