Carbon neutral dye courted by big brands
Did you know that carbon emissions from clothes outdo those released from all international flights and maritime shipping combined? The textile industry is – wait for it – the third most polluting industry in the world, behind energy and transportation.
Clothing is a prickly industry to get a hang of because its many businesses bunched together – starting from cotton etc ending up with branded clothes where some 8,000 non-biodegradable synthetic chemicals – most of which contain known carcinogens and hormone disruptors are used.
Many fashion companies are trying to contribute to encourage more sustainable consumption patterns, caring, and washing practices, and overall attitudes to fashion as they see that these hazardous substances have been a problem for many years. They are working to change a process that results in effluent holding high concentrations of dyes and chemicals like chromium, arsenic, copper, and zinc. The good news is Sri Lanka has a solution.
Responsible apparel makers are discussing with big brands to make sure that perilous or potentially hazardous chemicals are rooted out with ‘T-hues’ – a ground-breaking natural dye that will change the way clothes are coloured in the garment manufacturing industry.
The three parties that came together on this are Unilever Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) and Dynawash Ltd and was unveiled at the Shilpa Sena exposition organised by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Research in August. The three parties created natural dyes using a by-product generated during Unilever Sri Lanka’s instant tea manufacturing process.
Over 40 metric tonnes of Broken Mixed Fannings (BMF), a type of tea reject is used as a raw material at Unilever’s Ceytea instant tea plant located in Agarapathana. This is segregated, evaporated, and subsequently spray dried to get the base ingredient to produce tea dye in powder form, Mayanthi Wickremetilleke, Country Lead – Corporate Communications and Sustainable Business – Unilever Sri Lanka told the Business Times. The tea is then transformed into colour palettes as per customer requirements.
Now big brands are courting the patented, technologically advanced method. The attraction stems from the fact that this dye cuts water use and dyeing time, and could ease the carbon footprint from dyeing a cotton crew neck t-shirt by three-quarters and a nylon T-shirt by one-third.
T-hues is now in the process of presenting ranges of naturally dyed scarves, shawls, hoodies and t-shirts to big retailers, a Dynawash official said. “We are trying to commercialise this and it will be taken up by more than six brands,” he said.
He said that they are working on a lot of optimization in terms of attaining low cost production and commercial feasibility while meeting customer demands.