What is viscose fabric? What it is made of, and is it plastic

What viscose is made of

Viscose is made from cellulose, the material plants are built from. Almost all of it comes from wood: trees are pulped, and the pulp is dissolved and spun into new fiber. The result is called regenerated cellulose. It started as a plant, but it was not grown as a fiber the way cotton, linen or wool is.

In the US, viscose is legally rayon, a manufactured fiber of regenerated cellulose. The Federal Trade Commission says viscose is the international name for the main form of rayon and that labels may use either word.

How viscose is made

Wood pulp is soaked in sodium hydroxide, then reacted with carbon disulfide to make cellulose xanthate. That dissolves in more sodium hydroxide into a thick orange-brown liquid, which is what the word “viscose” first meant. The liquid is forced through fine holes into a bath of sulfuric acid and zinc sulfate, where it sets back into solid cellulose filaments.

Carbon disulfide and hydrogen sulfide escape from the process. Viscose production is the largest industrial source of carbon disulfide emissions.

Is viscose plastic?

No. Plastic is a synthetic polymer, and viscose is cellulose. US law defines polyester, nylon and acrylic as “long chain synthetic polymers” and rayon as “regenerated cellulose.” EU guidance on the Single-Use Plastics Directive says viscose and lyocell are not chemically modified and are not plastic.

Viscose, polyester and natural fibers

	Polyester	Viscose	Cotton and linen
What it is	Plastic (PET), mostly from fossil fuels	Wood cellulose, dissolved and respun	Plant fiber, grown and spun
Process chemical of concern	Antimony catalyst, left in the fiber	Carbon disulfide, in the factory	No polymer or dissolving step
Is it plastic?	Yes	No	No
Fibers in seawater	Did not degrade in 428 days	Fully biodegraded in about 35 days	Fully biodegraded in about 35 days
Share of world fiber, 2024	59%	About 5%	Cotton 19%, flax about 0.3%

Where the wood comes from

Man-made cellulosic fibers, viscose above all, are made primarily from wood. The forest campaign group Canopy estimates that more than 300 million trees are cut down each year to make them. By Canopy’s assessment, 35% of production was at known risk of sourcing from ancient and endangered forests in 2024.

How to spot viscose on a label

Look for viscose, rayon, modal or lyocell, all forms of the same fiber family. “Bamboo” fabric is almost always rayon: the FTC says the correct label is “rayon made from bamboo,” and in 2022 Kohl’s and Walmart paid $5.5 million in penalties for selling rayon as bamboo. Viscose is often blended with polyester or elastane, so read the full fiber content line.