Acrylic fabric is not sustainable. It is derived entirely from fossil fuels, requires large amounts of energy and water to produce, sheds microplastics with every wash, and is extremely difficult to recycle. Producing just one kilogram of acrylic fiber requires roughly 157 to 194 megajoules of energy, 210 liters of water, and generates approximately 5 kilograms of CO2.
What Acrylic Is Made From
Acrylic is a synthetic fiber made from polyacrylonitrile, a plastic polymer that must contain at least 85% acrylonitrile units. Acrylonitrile itself comes from petroleum or natural gas. Unlike natural fibers such as wool or cotton, acrylic starts as a fossil fuel product and ends as one. There is no biological origin at any point in the supply chain.
The fiber is created by dissolving the polymer in a solvent and forcing it through tiny holes called spinnerets. Because the polymer degrades before it melts, it can’t simply be heated and extruded the way some other plastics can. Instead, the process uses either wet or dry spinning methods, with hot gas reaching 200 to 350°C to evaporate the solvent. The manufacturing process also involves toxic substances that require extremely careful handling at every stage.
Carbon Footprint and Energy Use
The energy demands of acrylic production are among the highest of any common textile fiber. Estimates range from 157 to 194 megajoules per kilogram depending on the source and methodology, which puts it well above cotton and on par with or above most other synthetics. One recent analysis of an acrylic manufacturing facility measured emissions at approximately 3.1 kg of CO2 equivalent per kilogram of finished fabric. Other estimates place the figure closer to 5 kg of CO2 per kilogram when accounting for the full production chain.
For context, a single acrylic sweater weighing around 400 grams would be responsible for roughly 1.2 to 2 kg of CO2 just from manufacturing, before accounting for shipping, retail, laundering over its lifetime, or disposal.
Microplastic Shedding
One of acrylic’s most significant environmental problems happens after you buy it. Every time you wash an acrylic garment, it releases tiny plastic fibers into the water. These microfibers are too small to be fully captured by wastewater treatment plants and end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Research on acrylic fabrics specifically found that washing with detergent released about 162 milligrams of microfibers per kilogram of fabric, nearly three times the amount released without detergent. Warmer water makes the problem worse: washing at 40°C produced roughly 1.8 times more microfibers than washing at 20°C. Longer wash cycles doubled the fiber release compared to shorter ones, because the extended mechanical stress breaks more fibers loose.
There is a small silver lining. Microfiber shedding decreases with repeated washes. By the seventh cycle, acrylic garments released about 45% fewer fibers during washing than they did during the first wash. But the shedding never stops entirely, and it accumulates across millions of households doing laundry every week.
Toxic Chemicals in Production
The base chemical used to make acrylic, acrylonitrile, is classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” (Group 2B). Acute exposure can cause eye and nose irritation, difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea, and seizures. Chronic exposure has been linked to liver and kidney damage. One occupational health study found that 80% of workers exposed to acrylonitrile vapors in a petrochemical facility fell into a “definite risk” category for lifetime cancer risk.
The dyeing and finishing stages introduce additional hazards. Textile wastewater from synthetic fiber processing commonly contains unfixed dyes, formaldehyde, phthalates, phenols, volatile organic compounds, and heavy metals including lead, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, and mercury. Many synthetic dyes don’t fully bind to the fibers during the dyeing process, so they wash out directly into waterways. In regions with weak environmental regulation, this wastewater often reaches rivers and lakes with minimal treatment.
Durability Compared to Natural Alternatives
A common argument for synthetic fabrics is that they last longer, which could theoretically offset some environmental cost through extended use. Acrylic doesn’t hold up well on this front. Compared to wool, which it most often imitates, acrylic is more prone to pilling, stretching, and losing its shape. Wool fibers are naturally elastic and resilient, maintaining their structure over years of wear. Acrylic garments tend to look worn and misshapen relatively quickly, which means they get discarded sooner. A shorter useful life means more frequent replacement and more total waste generated per year of use.
Recycling Is Nearly Nonexistent
Unlike PET polyester, which has a growing (if still limited) recycling infrastructure built around plastic bottles, acrylic has almost no recycling pathway for post-consumer textiles. The polymer’s resistance to melting, the same property that makes it difficult to manufacture in the first place, also makes it extremely hard to reprocess. You can’t simply melt down an old acrylic sweater and spin it into new yarn the way you might with some other plastics.
Some certified recycled acrylic products do exist, but they tend to use pre-consumer waste (factory scraps) rather than clothing pulled from donation bins or landfills. Certification standards like the Recycled Content Certification verify the percentage of recycled material in a product, but the supply of recyclable acrylic remains tiny compared to the volume produced each year. For practical purposes, the vast majority of acrylic clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators, where it persists for decades or releases further pollutants when burned.
How Acrylic Compares Overall
Acrylic sits near the bottom of sustainability rankings for common textile fibers. It combines a fossil fuel origin, high production energy, toxic manufacturing chemicals, ongoing microplastic pollution during use, poor durability relative to the natural fiber it replaces, and virtually no end-of-life recycling option. If you’re looking for a warm, soft fabric with better environmental credentials, wool is the most direct substitute. It biodegrades naturally, sheds fibers that break down in the environment, lasts significantly longer, and doesn’t rely on petrochemicals.
For budget-conscious shoppers who gravitate toward acrylic because of its lower price, buying fewer, longer-lasting wool or wool-blend items typically delivers better value over time while dramatically reducing your textile footprint. If you already own acrylic garments, washing them less frequently, in cold water, with shorter cycles, and ideally inside a microfiber-catching wash bag will at least reduce the microplastic pollution they generate with each load.