The fibres are extracted from the plant by a process called retting. The raw material for rayon is eucalyptus trees, but it requires chlorine in the early stages of production, which in turn causes pollution by organo-chlorine compounds including dioxin. Synthetics Synthetic materials are usually oil-based with about 25 thousand barrels of oil a day being used to manufacture materials. Synthetics are not biodegradable. The production of nylon leads to large quantities of nitrous oxide being emitted.
Nitrous oxide is one of the gases responsible for the greenhouse effect.
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