Do you think it's' cloth ', but it's actually' plastic '? A picture to understand the true face of polypropylene non-woven fabric

2026-06-20

When it comes to non-woven fabric, the first reaction of the vast majority of people is: this is fabric! It is a natural fabric made of cotton, linen, and fiber, which is environmentally friendly, breathable, clean, and hygienic. It is much healthier and more reliable than plastic bags.
Plus its two names - PP non-woven fabric, and polypropylene non-woven fabric, the more it looks, the more confusing it becomes. Many people assume it is a textile fabric and confidently use it for disposable products, home storage, and food packaging.
But today we must tear apart the biggest misconception on the entire internet: the polypropylene non-woven fabric we come into contact with in our daily lives looks and feels like cloth, but in essence, it is real plastic!
It is not a traditional textile fabric at all, its scientific name is polypropylene non-woven fabric. Only by understanding this truth can you truly comprehend the underlying logic of masks, non-woven bags, and disposable items, and no longer be fooled by the "environmental rhetoric" of businesses!

Disrupting cognition: It's not cloth, it's petroleum based plastic!

Why is it called 'non-woven fabric' but not cloth? The core difference lies in the raw materials and production logic, traditional fabrics and it are completely different things.
The cotton, linen, and synthetic fabrics we usually wear are all formed through spinning, weaving, and weaving, relying on natural or textile fibers, and belong to traditional textile fabrics.
However, polypropylene (PP) non-woven fabric comes from a completely different background. Its raw materials are not cotton thread or fiber, but polypropylene plastic particles extracted from petroleum, which belong to the same family of plastic products as the plastic pots, bottles, and bags we usually use.
Here I would like to reiterate: PP non-woven fabric, polypropylene non-woven fabric, and polypropylene non-woven fabric, all with the same name and material, are made of plastic material, and none of them are natural fabrics. The reason why it is called "cloth" is only because its texture is soft and has the texture of cloth after molding, that's all.
It is precisely because of this huge cognitive gap that many businesses deliberately weaken its plastic properties and promote the gimmick of "environmentally friendly, biodegradable, and plastic free fabrics" to raise product prices, which is actually a deliberate false marketing.

One picture interpretation: The entire process of plastic particles transforming into "fake cloth"

Without the need for complex professional terminology, use the simplest process to guide you through the entire process of the birth of polypropylene non-woven fabric. After reading it, you will be instantly enlightened:
Core Evolution Link: Plastic pellets → High temperature melting → Spinning into a net → Hot pressing bonding → Finished non-woven fabric
The first step is to bring in the raw materials. The starting point of factory production is not cotton thread or silk thread, but PP polypropylene plastic particles the size of rice grains, which are 100% petroleum based plastic raw materials without any natural fiber additives.
The second step is to melt at high temperature to form glue. The plastic particles are fed into the equipment and completely melted at a high temperature of nearly 300 ℃, becoming a viscous syrup like liquid melt that completely breaks the solid structure of the plastic particles.
The third step is high-pressure spinning and forming. Through ultra-fine nozzles, liquid plastic is high-pressure sprayed to form countless extremely fine plastic microfibers, which are randomly stacked into a thin and light fiber network. This step is also the core process of mask meltblown fabric and spunbond non-woven fabric.
Step four, heat press and solidify into fabric. Loose plastic fiber mesh, after high-temperature hot pressing and bonding reinforcement, the fibers adhere to each other, ultimately forming a flat, soft, and resilient sheet material - which is what we see as non-woven fabric.
In summary, it is a fabric blown and pressed out of plastic, not woven! There is no textile process throughout the entire process, which is the true meaning of its scientific name non-woven fabric.

Two names are not lost, they are essentially made of plastic material

Many people wonder if there is a difference between the two names? Once again, it is clear that there is no material difference, only different scene names, and the essence is polypropylene plastic non-woven fabric.
Polypropylene non-woven fabric: Official standard scientific name, used for testing reports, engineering bidding documents, and national standard documents, is the most rigorous material labeling;
PP non-woven fabric: an abbreviation in English, the most commonly used name on the internet, used for online shopping, procurement, and civilian products.
Regardless of the name, the core materials, production processes, and material properties are completely consistent, unified as plastic material, and there is no natural fabric style.

Plastic properties create its universal advantage

Don't think that 'being plastic' is a disadvantage. It is precisely the material properties of plastic that make polypropylene non-woven fabric a universal material, with high cost-effectiveness and practicality.
Because it is made of plastic material, it has the characteristics of waterproof, non permeable, corrosion-resistant, non moldy, resistant to pulling, non-toxic and odorless, and stable toughness. Unlike cotton fabric that is damaged or moldy when exposed to water, and unlike ordinary paper that is prone to decay and wear.
The items that can be seen everywhere in our lives are all its presence: the outer layer of medical masks, disposable bed sheets, face towels, non-woven bags, home dust covers, agricultural maintenance fabrics, engineering geotextiles, all of which are non-woven fabrics with this plastic texture.
The key to avoiding pitfalls in 05: it is really not environmentally friendly and non degradable!
This is the core truth that everyone needs to know! Many people buy non-woven bags and disposable non-woven products, thinking that they are cloth, biodegradable, and more environmentally friendly, and it's okay to dispose of them casually.
But the fact is cruel: conventional polypropylene non-woven fabric, like ordinary plastic bags, belongs to difficult to degrade plastic products. It takes hundreds of years to slowly decompose in the natural environment, and indiscriminate disposal can also cause white pollution, which is not considered an environmentally friendly biodegradable material.
The majority of the "environmentally friendly fabric bags and biodegradable non-woven fabrics" promoted by merchants on the market are ordinary PP plastic non-woven fabrics, purely marketing gimmicks. Don't be misled.

Final summary

1. PP、 Polypropylene non-woven fabric, the two are exactly the same, but with different names;
2. It appears to be a fabric, but in reality it is a polypropylene plastic non-woven fabric without natural fiber components;
3. The process involves plastic hot melt spinning instead of traditional textile weaving;
4. It has superior performance but is not naturally degradable, and is not a pure natural environmentally friendly material.
After reading this article, you no longer have to be influenced by various names and marketing tactics! Next time you see non-woven fabric, remember to recognize its true face: it's not fabric, it's plastic!

Dongguan Liansheng Non woven Technology Co., Ltd. was established in May 2020. It is a large-scale non-woven fabric production enterprise integrating research and development, production, and sales. It can produce various colors of PP spunbond non-woven fabrics with a width of less than 3.2 meters from 9 grams to 300 grams.