What's the story with the dyes used in clothing?

pigment powder from orange osage

Take a look at what you’re wearing now. Have you ever wondered how your clothing got so colorful? Or how those flowers were printed on your top? Or maybe how your jeans became blue? Did you know that there are at least a couple of ways to color fabric? One way is to start by dyeing the threads and then weaving those into designs and patterns within the fabric. Wool tweeds are an example of this. Another way is to start with a uniformly-colored piece of fabric, unbleached natural linen for instance (seen on left), and then dip that fabric into the dye. Later in the process, you can screenprint on top of that to create an overall print design.

Natural fibers take well to natural dyes but they fade unless mordanted (fixed), while synthetic fibers might be more difficult to coax into a new color and thus might require additional dye - and likely additional chemicals to aid in the process. Even organic fabrics are processed with bleach and other toxins that may be harmful to the environment unless specified by your favorite brand.

But each of these techniques uses substantial quantities of water, and fresh water is a precious and finite resource on our planet. Yes, the Earth is covered in water, but much of that water is salt water in the oceans and is rarely used in the dye process. It has been said that “textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of clean water globally, after agriculture” 24 because dyes are applied in what is called a “water bath” (which basically means soaking), and afterward that water becomes contaminated but is returned to the rivers largely untreated. Traditional forms of textile dyeing use over one-half trillion gallons of fresh water each year 25 and, according to the World Bank, “20% of global industrial water pollution comes from the treatment and dyeing of textiles.” 26

In an interview with sustainability expert Alden Wicker in Newsweek magazine, Jason Kibbey CEO of SAC noted that “natural fibers go through a lot of unnatural processes on their way to becoming clothing.... they’ve been bleached, dyed, printed on, scoured in chemical baths.” Those chemicals can leach from the textiles and—in improperly sealed landfills—into groundwater. 27 Chemicals including lead, mercury, arsenic and several others may be used in the process of preparing and dyeing fabric, but consumers are not aware of this since the process usually occurs unseen in other countries where the population is downstream from the manufacturing factories. One author claims that “residents of Chinese and Indian factory towns can predict next season’s “in” palette based on the colors that their rivers turn.” 28 And in a Fast Company article, Zady co-founder, Maxine Bédat was quoted as saying, “the majority of China’s water remains unfit for drinking or bathing because of industrial contamination.” 29

Several initiatives have come out of these pollution issues including the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) program which aims to get factories to reduce their untreated discharge ultimately reaching a zero point. And promising innovations include dyeing techniques that reduce water use by up to 50%, but they are expensive up front and not being adopted quickly by brands. Other efforts to make the industry a more circular business include Fibershed’s vision to change things with their “soil to soil” concept. 30 What if we could create apparel that did not permanently disrupt the ecological balance and simply returned garments to the earth?

So, are there solutions? There are, but some are a ways off. What can you do now? Look for brands using less water, using less harmful dyes, and trying to clean up their production process. If you have a brand you love, and you know they are using harmful practices, speak up and tell them sustainable production matters to you.