Picking Cotton — and Nothing Else
Dec 1, 2006 — Before cotton becomes the fabric of our lives, it must be picked. The problem, however, is that more than cotton ends up being harvested.
According to industry figures, 22 percent of the cotton bales gathered worldwide are either seriously or moderately contaminated with such foreign material as plastic from bags blown into cotton fields, grease and oil from harvesting machinery, pieces of rubber, bits of plants, insects and even excess moisture. Moreover, close to half of all bales have...