Why dyeing clothes has a big environmental impact

In a small corner of the rural Taiwan, which is set between other pigment houses and small factories, Alchemie technology in the final stage of launching a project claims to increase the global clothing industry and lower carbon fingerprint.

The start of the UK has been targeted by one of the most dirt in the clothing industry – dyeing – with the first digital dyeing process in the world.

“Traditionally in dyeing fabric, you descend the fabric in water at 135 ° C for up to four hours or so – gallons and tons of water. For example, to dye one ton of polyester, you generate 30 tons of toxic wastewater,” told me The founder of Alchemie, Dr. Alan Hood.

“This is the same process that was developed 175 years ago in northwestern England, and in Lancashire Cotton Mills and Yorkshire Cotton Mills, and we exported it,” as he refers to the United States and then to factories in Asia.

The clothing industry uses an estimated five trillion liters of water every year to simply dye the fabric, According to the Global Resources InstituteUnited States -based research center.

This industry, in turn, is responsible for 20 % of the world’s industrial water pollution, with vital resources such as groundwater in some countries. It also launches a huge carbon imprint from start to end – or about 10 % of the annual global emissions, According to the United Nations Environment Program.

Alchemie says its technology can help solve this problem.

Its device, which is called “endeavor”, can be called dyeing, drying, and stability in a shorter process and providing water significantly.

Endaavor uses the same principle of tone printing to shoot quickly and accurately in the fabric and through the fabric, according to the company. 2800 fireworks for fire is about 1.2 billion drops per linear meters of fabric.

“What we do effectively is to record and put a drop, which is a very small drop with accuracy and accuracy on the fabric.” Hudd says: “We can turn on these drops and stop them, just like the lighting key.”

Alchemie claims great savings through this process: Reducing water consumption by 95 %, energy consumption up to 85 %, and working three to five times of traditional processes.

The company was initially developed in Cambridge, and it is now in Taiwan to see how Endeavor works in a real environment.

Ryan Chen, the new head of operations at Alchemie, who has a background in fabric manufacturing in Taiwan, says.

Alchemie is not the only company that tries a dye almost without water.

There is a China -based NTX textile company, which has developed a dye without temperature that can reduce the use of water by 90 % and 40 % dye, according to its website, and the start of the Swedish operation, which also uses “digitally” spray application with similar environmental benefits .

NTX and IMOGO did not respond to a BBC interview request.

Kirsi Niinimäki, a design professor looking for the future of textiles at Alto University in Finland, says that the solutions provided by these companies seem “completely promising” – although they add that they want to see more information on issues such as the reform and studies process Long -term about the durability of the fabric.

But although in the early days, Mrs. Niinimäki says that companies like Alchemie may bring real changes to this industry.

“All these types of new technologies, I think they are improvements. If you are able to use less water, for example, this means of course less energy, and perhaps even less chemicals – so of course it is a great improvement.”

Again in Taiwan, there are still some cells to settle – such as how to run an endeavor in a more hot and dirty climate than the United Kingdom.

The ALCHEMIE service manager, Matthew Avis, who helped rebuild the endeavor at the site of the new factory, discovered that the device needs to work in an air-conditioned environment-an important lesson given the amount of clothing manufacturing in South Asia.

The company also has some big goals for 2025. After testing it with the polyester in Taiwan, Alchemie is heading next to South Asia and Portugal to test its devices as well as its experience on cotton.

They will also have to know how to expand the endeavor.

Big fashion companies such as Inditex, the owner of Zara, operate with thousands of factories. Its suppliers will need hundreds of endeavors together to meet her request to tissue.

This is just one company – there will be many and many needy.