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WHY natural dyes?

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Creating and utilizing your own natural dyes is a great way to reduce your contribution to the environmental consequences of the textile industry. Natural dyeing is sustainable and accessible. By using spices, vegetable scraps, and inedible components of fruits such as skins and pits, you can make a variety of simple and beautiful textile dyes. Using natural dyes can be a sustainable alternative to buying new clothing. You can give your existing clothing a new look, rework thrifted or second-hand clothing, or dye yarn or fabric to use in creating your own clothing from scratch. Reduce your environmental footprint and tap into your creativity by trying out simple and sustainable natural dyeing. These are the ideals that we are aiming to cultivate at Sustainable Colors.

The textile industry is one of the world’s largest industrial sectors, and also one of the largest polluters. Textile production consumes high amounts of water, bleaches, dyes, and other chemicals, many of which are toxic and produce toxic waste. The residual textile “sludge” left over from the dyeing process creates high volumes of non-biodegradable organic compounds which are often discharged, untreated, into water bodies, causing unmitigated environmental harm.

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Applications of Natural Dyes

  • Dyeing yarns- wool will take the dye best

  • Dyeing fabric- can be used to make clothing, bags, pillows, etc.

  • Dyeing existing clothing to give new color or patterns- will work best on light-colored or undyed clothing items

  • Dyeing bedsheets and pillowcases

  • Using rubber bands before submerging the fabric can create tie-dye patterns

  • Dyeing pulp for papermaking

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Our sources:

 

 

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