The plant-based, or cellulose based materials used in the textile industry, and in particular in carpet manufacturing, can be divided into two main groups: fibres or seed fibres. The difference between the two types is the part of the plant from which the fibres originate.

Fibres

Fibres are the structural building blocks of plants. Fibres can be divided into husk fibres, such as flax and hemp, fruit fibres, such as coconut, and leaf fibres, such as agave. The processing of fibres requires a lot of work, because it is necessary to separate the fibres, each corresponding to a bundle of cells. The glue between them has to be removed by mechanical and chemical solution, which is why flax and hemp are soaked and scutched.

One of the most popular plant-based fibres is flax, which is used in the textile industry for its high tenacity and elasticity, as well as its easy bleaching properties. It is used to make a wide variety of fabrics, from light clothing fabrics to heavy technical fabrics. It is also popular for domestic use, making tablecloths, napkins, sheets, blankets and, of course, carpets and upholstery. Hemp and jute fibre fabrics are resistant to moisture and are mainly used in the manufacture of sacks, packing canvas and boat ropes. A similar fabric to these coarse materials is sisal, made from agave, which is often used to make strings, twine and various types of ropes, but also for brushes, mats, blankets and carpets. Interestingly, sisal ropes are much more elastic than hemp ropes.

Seed fibres

Seed fibres are elementary fibres found on the fruits and seeds of various plants after flowering. Their role was originally to allow the seeds to be blown further away by the wind. Seed fibres can be found in many plants, but cotton is the one most commonly and extensively used by the textile industry, because cotton seed fibres are very dense. The material made from raw cotton seed fibres is also called cotton. Cotton is a material that is easy to handle, easy to work with and hypoallergenic - which is why it is often used to make clothes. As with other materials, cotton can be classified into better and worse quality based on the length of the fibres: fresh cotton or longer seed fibres wound together produce stronger, better quality cotton. On the other hand, yarns made from shorter fibres or recycled cotton might often become fluffy. You might think that using plant-based ingredients is environmentally friendly, but this is not always true. Even when using natural materials, producing plant-based yarn is not necessarily ecological. Cotton, for example, is very water-intensive to grow, not to mention the fact that the subsequent stages of processing, washing and dyeing, also consume a huge amount of water.