Dyes

Water pollution, resource consumption and regulatory scrutiny are converging on one of textile manufacturing's most established processes. Dyeing remains essential to fabric production, yet significant quantities of water, energy and chemicals are consumed in managing unfixed colourants. As compliance requirements tighten globally, manufacturers are reassessing how efficiency, wastewater management and competitiveness intersect.

Rice straw, an abundant agricultural waste product, has been shown to work as a natural dye that simultaneously colours and protects fabric. New research found that treating wool, silk and nylon 6 with a rice straw extract produced colour fastness alongside UV protection and antioxidant activity, with plasma pretreatment of fabrics beforehand shown to strengthen all three outcomes considerably.

A newly published archaeological study has identified a blue-dyed textile fragment from Beycesultan Höyük in western Türkiye as the oldest known blue fabric discovered in a Bronze Age context in Anatolia and its periphery. The research analyses the fragment, identifies it as early evidence of nålbinding, an early single-needle knitting technique, and confirms the use of indigo in the region.

The fashion industry’s demand for distressed denim often clashes with reliance on potassium permanganate, heavy bleaching, and water-intensive laundering. Pressure to modernise these approaches keeps growing. Providing momentum is Archroma, which developed the Denim Halo system to engineer predictable surface dyeing upstream, enabling strong contrasts with markedly reduced resource use and operational complexity.

Researchers in China have used artificial intelligence to design better carbon-based materials that can clean toxic dyes from industrial wastewater. By analysing hundreds of lab results, the system identified the most effective combinations for dye removal, helping make low-cost, eco-friendly solutions for the textile and chemical industries more efficient.

University of Arkansas chemical engineering researchers have successfully developed a groundbreaking environmental remediation method that transforms lignin, an abundant waste byproduct generated by the global pulp and paper industry, into a highly effective solution for removing toxic azo dyes from contaminated textile wastewater systems with remarkable laboratory-tested effectiveness rates.

Pili has a mission—it produces decarbonised alternatives based on renewable resources for sustainable industrial applications. Pili President Jérémie Blache explains how Pili uses hybrid processes combining industrial fermentation and organic chemistry to manufacture sustainable, high-performance colour ranges for the textiles industry.

Designing for death! You read it right. And then an exhibition that encourages visitors to consider end-of-life decisions and how their choices can impact human and environmental well-being. Dr Sherry Haar, a natural dye and design scholar, investigates all of this and more to generate awareness about green burial through her fibre art.

Researchers from Japan’s University of Fukui have optimised a decolorisation process which effectively penetrates fabric fibres to remove the dyes with minimal environmental impact. The extracted dyes can be reused, and the fabrics be redyed.

The UK Fashion and Textile Association (UKFT) has come out with a report that aims to encourage innovators, brands, retailers and manufacturers to work together so that the industry can collectively achieve environmental impact reduction goals.