Green Cotton

By Brit

I’ve been reading volumes of information about dyes, synthetic and natural, in the last few weeks and I’m horrified at the pollution and devastating health issues caused by several popular synthetic dyes. I am also saddened to learn of limitations on environmentally friendly natural dyes. It’s enough to make a girl contemplate wearing only undyed fabrics from now on. If only that didn’t mean beige.

I have light brown hair, and skin the color of milk that I gave up trying to tan long ago. And while I love Lily Cole, Keira Knightly and Dita Von Teese for being living proof of the ability to look gorgeous and pale, a wardrobe that’s almost the same color as my skin is going to make me look like a filing cabinet from The Office rather than Scarlett Johansen.

So let’s leave the all-beige outfits to Calvin Klein devotees and Dunder Mifflin Paper Company employees, and consider our colorful options. Thankfully, many designers are using natural dyes in an environmentally friendly manner, and synthetic dyes, while still being far from an ecological alternative, are becoming somewhat greener.

Synthetic dyes have two main areas of concern.

• Many synthetic dyes are highly toxic to dye workers, and may cause adverse health effects to those who wear dyed clothes.
• Dye factories are very polluting. Dying involves vast quantities of water, and dyeing processes usually waste a large proportion of the dye. The water containing the waste dye – dye effluent – is highly problematic. Dye can be chemically removed from the effluent, cleaning to the water to a government-approved standard, and the factory then dumps the water into a river. But quantities of dye still enter the waterways. And there is still the problem of disposing of the sludge of waste dye removed from the water. Research to treat dye effluent with fungi, bacteria, and other organic methods is in it’s infancy, but may eventually help to deal with the waste dye pollution problem.

Here are some ways to buy clothes dyed with greener, less polluting, synthetic dyes.

• Buy European. Europe has banned a number of known carcinogenic azo dyes. Clothing manufactured or sold in Europe can’t be dyed with any of those dyes.   British boutiques like Fashion-Conscience, Equa, and Adili shine with gorgeous and ethical pieces. If only the exchange rate didn’t make me weep! I’ve been resisting this season’s maxi dresses, on the basis that I would look like a walking tent, but I admit defeat in the face of this white maxi with a wood bead neckline from Adili. Trapeze dresses, wide leg jeans and more high fashion looks abound at Fashion-Conscience: forget beige with this intense azure blue embroidered shirt.  As well as women’s clothes, Equa sells darling baby gear such as this raspberry colored dress with animal appliqués.

• Avoid dark colors. The most harmful dyes are often the darker colors. Black wool dye often requires a toxic chromium mordant. The most inexpensive dark blue, brown and black cotton dyes are usually sulfur dyes, which have corrosive, highly toxic sulfur compounds as by-products. Cheap, dark colored cotton is bad.

• Avoid Azo Dyes. A large number of azo dyes are carcinogens, or are formulated from carcinogenic chemicals. Scientific consensus seems to be that the final dye product is safe to wear, but there have been incidences of a “safe” dye reverting back to a carcinogen in the body. Imagine that a baby chewing on her bib or sleeve will be ingesting dye.

• Low Impact, Fiber Reactive Dyes are those which bond very tightly to the fabric, with a high take-up rate of dye by the cloth. In this process, more dye binds to the fabric, less is wasted in the factory dye bath, so there’s less waste dye to end up in a river. Still synthetic, still petro-chemical based, but their improved permanence – the dye actually becomes part of the fiber – means that your baby can chew on a Zee Spot organic, low impact dye baby onesie more safely.

Currently, there are no true environmentally friendly synthetic dyes available, and natural dyes, used considerately, are the only true green option to dye clothing.

Natural dyes have limitations, especially that only so much can be manufactured before the scale of production begins to adversely effect the environment. The solution has to involve genuine environmentally friendly synthetic dyes. Supporting designers who use low-impact dyes and non-azo dyes will send a message to chemical companies that yes, we do want, and yes, we will buy eco-friendly dyes, so please keep researching and working to make your products cleaner, less polluting, and less toxic.

Photosource top: The Synthetic Dye Collection by Rose Madder www.micro.magnet.fsu.edu/micro/gallery/dyes/dye3.jpg

Madder Plant used for natural dying.

By Brit

Before the middle of the nineteenth century, all dyes were extracted from plants, animals or minerals. Then, when synthetic dyes were discovered in 1856, textile producers found that synthetics were cheaper, easier to apply, more colorfast, and could be produced in a wider and brighter range of colors. Natural dyes quickly fell from favor, to be replaced by synthetic dyes for most applications.

Synthetic dyes can also be extremely toxic to manufacture, and harmful to dye workers. Textile factories where fabrics are dyed, consume vast quantities of water to dissolve the dye. Once the fabric is dyed, the dye-contaminated water is treated to some extent, then expelled into rivers.

As hazards and pollution due to synthetic dyes have become more apparent, more attention has been paid to natural dyes.

Natural dyes sound oh-so-good, conjuring up romantic images of dyeing wool with berries and herbs. Many crafters love working with natural dyes for their intrinsic color variability, and the challenge of mastering the skill of natural dying.

However, dying with a natural dyes can be difficult and there are downsides: the dyes are harder to apply to fabrics, and the process is more of an art than a science. The final color is affected by many variables which can be part of the charm of natural dyes, but also can lead to challenges in making them consistent and/or desirable.

For a commercial application, consistency is very important and is a major reason why natural dyes are rarely produced commercially.

Commercial natural dyes also unfortunately have a couple of serious side effects that in some cases render them harmful – in some cases as damaging as synthetic dyes. By the way, natural does not mean non-toxic; many natural substances are toxic.

• Most natural dyes require a mordant. Many mordants like salt, alum, and natural mordants like pomegranate are used in some cases, but for some colors, like to dye wool black, chromium, an extremely toxic heavy metal, is needed.

• Producing natural dyes from the plant, may involve harmful chemicals. Madder dye (see image of plat at top) is often extracted by dissolving the roots of the plant in sulphuric acid. Sodium hydroxide is needed to produce natural indigo dye.

• Natural dyes are not necessarily safe: natural indigo dye is a skin, eye and respiratory system irritant.

• Vegetarians and vegans take note: cochineal, a red dye, is made from ground up insects. Lac dye, a scarlet color, is also produced from insects. Both these dyes also require sodium hydroxide in their production.

• Issues with producing dyes on a commercial scale. Many natural dye plants grow in tropical areas where agricultural land is often at a premium. Reallocating land and water away from food crops, or clearing land to grow dye plants, is harmful to local people and the environment.

Lawsonia, or Henna plant (featured above) is used for a wide range of color derivatives for hair and other purposes. There are three species of this plant used for dying extracts.

So do natural dyes have just as many issues as synthetic ones? It appears that there are many considerations to weigh at the decision table. Fortunately, with considerate dyeing practices, natural dyes can be used in a much more environmentally friendly way than synthetic dyes.

Here’s some artists, designers and clothing companies who do use safe, natural dyes, and or other methods of dyeing fabrics naturally.

Earth Creations dye their organic cotton, sweatshop-free basics and active wear with clays and mud. Clay never, never comes off, doesn’t require any other chemicals, and when the dyeing is done, the clay be returned to the earth safely.

Investigate Tinctoria if you are heading to festivals, or packing for Ibiza. Tinctoria deliberately avoids harmful chemicals when dyeing their boho wares with natural dyes. ROMP, a British runway-worthy design house, also use similar safe dyes for their clothing and denim. Ocelot Clothing, from San Francisco, makes tribal-inspired prints using the ancient itajime dyeing technique.

And for men, Truly Organic Apparel has a range of mens’ – and womens’ too – clothes dyed with safe natural dyes.

ColorGrown cotton – also called FoxFibre, or Colorganic cotton – naturally grows in shades of creams, greens and browns so no further dye is required. The Colorgrown Clothing Company sells organic color grown baby hats, shirts and blankets, and basics and lingerie can be found at Cottonfield and Rawganique. Jonano also sells this gently colored cotton, including a cafe-au-lait colorgrown cotton dress that I’d love for a beach vacation.

So we can get our do yoga, sleep, and dress our children well in clothing colored with safe, natural dyes from a growing number of independent, caring companies.

Currently, our options for drinking cocktails, going to the office, a Raconteurs gig or a wedding are more limited. Where can we buy fashionable naturally dyed garments? Hopefully, with more heed being paid to the consequences of using synthetic dyes, more and more clothing designers will be answering that question soon.

Photo source top: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Haematoxylum_campechianum_Ypey69.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Lawsonia_inermis_Ypey36.jpg