Eco-friendly yarn: what the labels mean
"Eco-friendly" is not a defined term and nobody audits it. The certifications and descriptions printed on a yarn band are defined, and each one covers something specific and fairly narrow. Knowing which is which is the difference between an informed choice and a guess.
We do not put an eco-friendly label on yarn ourselves. What follows is what the terms mean, so you can read a band and decide for yourself.
GOTS
The Global Organic Textile Standard. It covers fibre certified organic at the farm and also sets processing, chemical input and labour criteria along the supply chain. GOTS is issued per product by an accredited certifier, and the certifier and licence number should be traceable. It says nothing about how far the yarn travelled or how it was packaged.
OEKO-TEX Standard 100
Tests the finished textile for substances harmful to human health. It is a safety test on the end product, not an environmental or organic claim. A yarn can hold OEKO-TEX certification and be entirely synthetic.
Mulesing-free
Applies to merino and other wool. Mulesing is a surgical practice used on some sheep to prevent flystrike, and "mulesing-free" states that the wool comes from flocks where it is not performed. It is an animal welfare statement about one specific practice. There is no single global issuing body for it, so the strength of the claim depends on the traceability the producer can show.
Undyed
The yarn keeps the natural colour of the fibre, so the dyeing step is skipped. Dyeing is water and energy intensive, so leaving it out removes that part of the footprint. The trade-off is colour: undyed shades are limited to what the animal or plant produced, which usually means creams, greys and browns.
Recycled
Fibre recovered from production waste or from used textiles and spun into new yarn. For synthetics this usually means recycled polyester. For wool and cotton, recycled fibre is often shorter than virgin fibre, so it tends to be blended. The percentage is what matters, and it should be stated.
Natural is not automatically lower impact
Wool is renewable and biodegradable, and it also comes with land use and methane. Cotton is plant-based, and conventional cotton is water and pesticide intensive, which organic certification addresses for the pesticides. Linen generally needs fewer inputs than cotton. Acrylic is petroleum-derived and sheds microplastic in the wash, and it also lasts a long time and involves no animal. There is no single answer here, only trade-offs, and which one wins depends on what you weight most.
The part that is easy to miss
The lowest-impact yarn is usually the one that becomes something you keep wearing. A sweater worn for ten years beats a certified sweater worn twice. Buying enough of one dye lot to actually finish the project, and choosing a fibre suited to how you will wash it, does more than any label on the band.
Checking a claim
Certification information for the yarn we stock comes from the manufacturer's own product data, and it appears in the product details where the supplier records it. If a certification matters to your decision, check the manufacturer's page for that yarn line and the certifier's licence number before you buy.