Today, one of the most common issues someone will find scrolling through social media is with fashion. One of the problems lies in overconsumption, where people are buying way more clothes than they need, and throw out perfectly good pieces because they no longer like them.
However, it is also important to consider the processes that it takes to make those clothes and the effect that those processes may have on the environment as well.
Dyes in Textiles: Why is it an Issue?
Clothes sold in stores can come in a plethora of colors. However, it is quite obvious that the fabric does not always start off that color. Fabrics must be dyed to be made into clothing, but the dying process can actually be harmful to the planet.
However, dying fabric requires its own process; color is not simply added to a garment. First, the fabric must be stripped of its impurities and prepared with a chemical solution to ensure that the fabric can maintain an even color (Khattab, Abdelrahman, & Rehan, 2020). Only then can dye be added to the product, where it is later finished to ensure that the clothing maintains its color.
How is this possibly an issue? Well, not only is the dye in fabrics harmful to the planet, but it is directly harmful to consumers as well. While some customers have reported irritated skin due to their clothing, others who work as employees in the textile industry have reported developing contact dermatitis and asthma from prolonged exposure to the dye materials (Khattab, Abdelrahman, & Rehan, 2020). Additionally, the amount of water used in the fabric dyeing process has also resulted in a large amount of wastewater, which has found its way into streams. This has caused harmful chemicals to spread to the soil, which in return has caused harm to plants and animals in these areas. (Khattab, Abdelrahman, & Rehan, 2020).
Dyeing with Algae
One of the main solutions to this issue involve the use of algae, a group of photosynthetic organisms commonly found in the water. This means that they are capable of making their own food, consuming the carbon dioxide in the environment and releasing oxygen as a byproduct.
According to one research article, algae reproduces rather quickly, taking mere hours to produce large populations (Ayyanar et al., 2023). Additionally, algae would not compete for the same resources that typical plants would, since it can grow in sea water and waste water. This means that producing algae could possibly take fewer resources than the typical agriculture used for textiles.
The article also writes about how algae has a large number of uses, so producing a large amount would not go to waste. Not only can algae be used to screen the waste water that is so harmful to our environment, but it can also be used to make plastics, yarn, fertilizers, and even cosmetics (Ayyanar et al., 2023). Moreover, algae is biodegradable, decomposing at a rate that is even faster than the cotton that is traditionally used to make fabrics (Ayyanar et al., 2023). This means that farming algae could serve as a potential solution to reducing the major environmental effects of the clothing industry in today’s world.
Although it does not hold the answer to all of the problems with the industry, it can be a great stepping stone towards progress.
Works Cited
Khattab, T.A., Abdelrahman, M.S. & Rehan, M. (2020). Textile dyeing industry: environmental impacts and remediation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 3803–3818. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07137-z
Ayyanar, I., Bharathi, S.J. G., Ravindran, A., Rajendran, R., Arulprakasam, A., Vellaisamy, B. (2023) Chapter 14 – Algae materials for textile industries,In Developments in Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, Algae Materials, Academic Press, 231-246, ISBN 9780443188169, https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-443-18816-9.00018-6.