What is Milk Fabric?

According to Swicofil, "of the 88 million tonnes of food wasted in Europe every year, 20% of that is dairy produce". WRAP, a UK charity that helps individuals and organisations reduce waste, confirmed this, saying that 20% of the estimated 1.7 million tonnes of annual waste created during food manufacturing in the UK is dairy - second in volume to meat and fish. Perhaps it's because it's spoiled, or we overestimate how much we need. Either way, it's a shocking fact.

Each year, thousands of gallons of milk are poured straight down the drain. It's a wasteful problem. 

Step in, Milk Fabric - a wonderfully creative product, transforming week-old soured milk into silky-smooth, high-end fashion fabric. Although many people have never heard of it, it's not as recent a development as we might think, and has been used to create material since the 1930s. Casein, the ingredient that makes milk fibre, is used in thousands of products from the beauty industry to paint, to glue.

You may also have noticed that Offset Warehouse has recently started to sell milk fibre textiles. And, alongside an interview with David Courtney, founder of Courtney & Co. Button Makers, about their milk-fibre buttons, what better timing to discover what milk fabric is, how it's made and its advantages and drawbacks? Read on to find out more.