Plastic Impurities Found in Cotton

The United States cotton industry has been known to produce top-quality cotton for decades. According to surveys from the National Cotton Council and the International Textile Manufacturers Foundation, US produced cotton is among the least contaminated in the world. Even though the US has the least contaminated cotton compared to other countries, studies show that over the years, the levels of contamination are escalating. This dilemma has the potential to damage the reputation of cotton grown in the US. The challenge of keeping cotton free of contamination by foreign materials must be addressed. Foreign material is an impurity, whether organic or inorganic, that gets inadvertently mixed with cotton in the harvest and post-harvest processes. Foreign materials can range from plastic grocery bags to oil or grease. These contaminants have the potential to make it through the various stages of textile production and end up ruining many yards of cotton yarn. Over the years, the cotton industry has invested in expensive equipment to remove trash from cotton. We will elaborate on the tactics and different cotton seed cleaning equipment developed to troubleshoot plastic impurities.